Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Witten (City of Witten) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cream-toned notgeld note with a green guilloche border framing the entire face. The denomination 'Zwei Millionen Mark' is set in bold blackletter type at the top, followed by a letterpress payment obligation text. To the left, the circular municipal seal of Witten — inscribed 'SIEGEL DER STADT WITTEN' and bearing a heraldic castle with flanking lions — is printed in black. The issue date 'Witten, den 13. August 1923' and the authorising legend 'Für die Stadtgemeinde Witten: Der Magistrat:' appear to the right, above two manuscript signatures. The printer's imprint 'Märkische Druckerei Aug. Pott, Witten' is typeset along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in green on plain paper, with a continuous scrollwork guilloche border running along all four edges. A central ornamental cartouche of elaborate green filigree, flanked by large rosette vignettes at either side, frames the inscription 'Stadt Witten' in open roman lettering. The remainder of the field is unprinted, with a ghost impression of the obverse text visible through the thin paper stock. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Witten's municipal administration issued this note during the hyperinflation peak of 1923, when the Reichsbank's supply of emergency currency was wholly inadequate and hundreds of German cities printed their own Notgeld to keep commerce moving at all. The Märkische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt Aug. Pott was a local Witten press, which made logistical sense — transport delays in that period could render a denomination obsolete before the ink dried.
Two million marks sounds extraordinary; by late 1923 it barely covered a loaf of bread.