20 Mark

Dresden's municipal administration issued this 20 Mark note under the emergency currency provisions that proliferated across German cities in 1918, as the imperial financial system buckled under wartime strain. Stengel & Co. was primarily a fine-art postcard and reproduction house — an unusual choice for a currency printer, but not uncommon in the Notgeld period, when municipalities turned to whatever quality printing facilities were locally available rather than dedicated security printers.

The embossed seal substitutes for more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures, reflecting both the provisional nature of the issue and the material shortages of the final war year.