Catalog
20 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Rheydt (City of Rheydt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein der Stadt Rheydt Serie H Nr. 20 Millionen Mark zahlt die Stadt Rheydt für diesen Schein. Der Zeitpunkt der Einlösung wird bekannt gemacht. Rheydt, den 28. August 1923. Der Oberbürgermeister: |
| Reverse description | Plain orange paper reverse divided into two horizontal registers. The upper portion bears a lightly printed ghost image of the municipal coat of arms of Rheydt as a large watermark-style underprint, with the issuer name 'Stadt Rheydt' in bold Fraktur flanking the coat of arms vignette. The lower register is bordered by sawtooth guilloche bands and carries the denomination repeated on both sides — '20 000 000 Mark' and 'Mark 20 000 000' — separated by a central star ornament, all printed in dark ink on an orange ground. |
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| Comments |
Rheydt issued this note at the absolute peak of Weimar hyperinflation — 20,000,000 Mark was a denomination that would have been unthinkable eighteen months earlier and was itself obsolete within weeks of printing. The city had no choice but to produce Notgeld at this scale; the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough currency to meet daily wage payments, and municipal authorities across the Rhineland were printing their own emergency issues to fill the gap.
Otto Berger was a local commercial printer, not a specialist security firm. That origin matters — the notes lack the intaglio depth of Reichsdruckerei work and were easy to reproduce.