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!
20 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtverwaltung Stuttgart (City Administration of Stuttgart) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 000 000 000 Mark (20 000 000 000) |
| 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 | Typographically composed notgeld issue in dark green and red on cream paper, with a decorative border of foliate and geometric ornaments at left and right margins. The issuing authority 'STADTVERWALTUNG STUTTGART' appears in an arched banner across the upper field, below which the legend 'STADT-KASSENSCHEIN FÜR' introduces the large-format denomination '20 MILLIARDEN MARK' in bold letterpress. At lower centre the place and date 'STUTTGART 20. OKTOBER 1923' is printed, flanked by the manuscript signatures of the Oberbürgermeister (left) and Stadtpfleger (right), with the circular red official stamp of the Stadtgemeinde Stuttgart bearing a prancing horse at right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Circular red ink official stamp of the Stadtgemeinde Stuttgart bearing a prancing horse device, applied to the obverse. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Stuttgart's city administration issued this twenty-billion-mark note during the most violent phase of the German hyperinflation, when the Reichsbank's own presses could not keep pace with demand and municipalities across Germany became emergency currency issuers almost by necessity. This class of local emergency money — Notgeld — was legally tolerated rather than officially sanctioned, filling a circulation gap that the central monetary authorities had simply lost control of.
The security feature here is nothing more than an administrative stamp. By late 1923, that was the practical ceiling of what local issuers could manage. The denomination itself rendered sophisticated counterfeiting largely pointless.