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2 Mark
| Issuer | Swakopmunder Buchhandlung |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain cardboard gutschein (voucher) with a dotted rectangular border. Serial number box at upper right inscribed "NUMMER" above the handwritten number. Denomination "2 Mark" in bold letterpress at centre, with issuer name "Swakopmunder Buchhandlung Ges. m. b. H., Swakopmund" below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Unprinted reverse of linen-textured cardboard stock, plain and unadorned, with no inscriptions or design elements. |
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| Comments |
The Swakopmunder Buchhandlung — a bookshop and stationery business in Swakopmund — became an emergency note issuer during the First World War occupation period, when small change effectively ceased to exist in what was then transitioning from German colonial administration to South African military control. These cardboard notgeld pieces were a purely local solution to a purely local problem: the shop printed its own fractional currency and its customers accepted it because there was nothing else.
Cardboard issues of this type are inherently fragile and were never meant to outlast the crisis that created them. Survivors show heavy handling damage as a rule.