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20 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Giengen a. Brenz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 000 000 000 Mark (20 000 000 000) |
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| Obverse description | The upper half of the note carries the issuer inscription and denomination in bold letterpress type, with the hand-numbered series reference at upper left and the numeral 20 repeated at each lower corner. A horizontal vignette in the lower half presents a panoramic townscape of Giengen an der Brenz with its characteristic church towers and rooflines; to the right, a separate cartouche displays the civic coat of arms bearing a rearing unicorn. An applied circular official stamp of the Stadtschultheissenamt Giengen a. Brenz is impressed in blue ink at centre, flanked by two manuscript signatures of the Stadtschultheiss and Stadtpfleger respectively. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | H.Nr. Stadt Giengen a. Brenz 20,000,000,000 Zwanzig Milliarden Mark zahlt die Stadtkasse Giengen a. Brenz dem Einlieferer dieses Scheines. Gültig bis 31. März 1924. Verlängerung oder früherer Aufruf zur Einlösung vorbehalten. Giengen a. Brenz, den 25. Oktober 1923. Stadtschultheiss: Stadtpfleger: 20 20 G. Schmid, Buchdr., Giengen a. Br. |
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| Comments |
Giengen an der Brenz is a small Württemberg town best known today as the birthplace of the Steiff teddy bear. In late 1923 it was doing what hundreds of German municipalities were doing: printing its own emergency currency because the Reichsbank simply could not produce legal tender fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. By the time a 20-billion-Mark note left the local printer G. Schmid, the denomination was already losing purchasing power by the hour.
The official stamp served as the sole security measure — a thin barrier against counterfeiting that was, under the circumstances, almost beside the point.