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20 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Apolda (City Treasury of Apolda) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Mark |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Die Stadtkasse in Apolda zahlt dem Einlieferer dieses Geldscheins Zwanzig Mark Apolda, den 15. November 1918 Der Gemeindevorstand · Der Gemeinderat STADT APOLDA |
| Reverse description | Brown and tan reverse printed in the same colour scheme, centred on a large heraldic vignette of the Apolda civic coat of arms — a crowned shield with elaborate mantling — set against a plain guilloche ground. The inscription 'ZWANZIG MARK' runs across the top and 'STADT APOLDA' across the bottom of the arms vignette. Diamond-shaped corner pieces each contain the numeral '20', flanked by vertical text panels bearing the note's conditions of validity in small Gothic script. The red typeset serial number 'Serie H Nr.' appears at the foot of the note. |
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| Comments |
Apolda was a small Thuringian industrial town best known for its knitting mills and, later, the Dobermann breed — not a financial center by any stretch. The 20 Mark note issued by its Stadtkasse in 1918 belongs to the vast wave of municipal Notgeld that flooded Germany as the imperial monetary system buckled under wartime strain. Local treasuries were authorized to issue emergency paper to address acute coin shortages, and hundreds of towns did exactly that.
The perforation security feature is modest but deliberate — a low-cost measure against counterfeiting at a time when sophisticated printing infrastructure was largely unavailable to small municipalities.