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2 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Beckum (City of Beckum) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Vertically oriented notgeld note with an elaborate multicolour letterpress vignette illustrating the local Westphalian folk tale 'De Bieckumer Raothues-Püt' (the Beckum Town Hall Well), in which a chain of townsfolk attempts to rescue a man who has fallen into a well, rendered in a lively genre scene set against a townscape background. Denomination panels bearing '2' and 'Mk' in ornate cartouches appear at centre-left and centre-right respectively, flanked by acanthus scroll borders, with the serial number printed in red at the left margin. The upper inscription reads 'Gegen Einlieferung dieses GUTSCHEINES zahlt die Stadt BECKUM', and two columns of Low German verse fill the lower lateral panels, with a validity disclaimer text in the bottom register. |
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| Obverse lettering | De Bieckumer Raothues-Püt. Gegen Einlieferung dieses GUTSCHEINES zahlt die Stadt BECKUM 2 Mk Un es der nu de ganze Stranck Honk in den Püt herunner, Dao wuodden Hans de Arms to lank, Et was auk gar kein Wunner. Seg, Mieke, gaoh naon Huöcker hen Un hahl my eenen blaven Twän. Dat Wyf, dat leip in vuller Trott, Hans konn kuhm Aohm mehr krygen, He Jungens holt ju fast, ick mot Es in de Hände spygen He dait, un ehr he'n Baum wier pock, Dao laigens all int deipe Look Dieser Schein verliert seine Gültigkeit, wenn er nicht innerhalb eines Monats nach erfolgter öffentlicher Aufforderung zur Einlösung vorgelegt wird |
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| Comments |
Beckum is a small Westphalian town, and like hundreds of German municipalities in 1918, it resorted to issuing its own Notgeld when the imperial monetary system buckled under wartime coin hoarding and metal shortages. These city-issued notes were legal stopgaps — officially tolerated but never sanctioned as permanent currency — and the 2 Mark denomination sits at the upper end of what most towns bothered to print, reflecting real purchasing pressure by late 1918 as inflation began eroding smaller values almost immediately upon issue.