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20 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Gießen (City of Giessen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse repeats the tan cross-hatched underprint and brown frame, with the numeral '20' printed in large brownish figures at both left and right flanks as underprint. A central circular vignette, surrounded by the same green laurel wreath with ribbon, displays the heraldic shield of Gießen — a red lion rampant on a white field divided by a black diagonal band — set against a solid black ground. Bold black Fraktur lettering at upper left and right reads 'Kriegs-Notgeld', while 'Stadt' and 'Gießen' appear at lower left and right respectively. |
| Reverse lettering | Kriegs-Notgeld Stadt Gießen |
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| Comments |
Gießen's municipal administration issued this Kriegsgeld note under the emergency currency provisions that proliferated across German cities and towns during the final year of the war, when Reichsbank coin and small-denomination notes were hopelessly inadequate for daily commerce. Stadt Gießen was one of hundreds of civic issuers scrambling to fill the gap with locally authorized paper.
Brühl was a local Gießen printing house — not a specialist security printer — which is typical of the corner-cutting that defines Notgeld from this period. The paper and printing quality reflect it.