Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Mark
| Issuer | Landesbank des Fürstentums Lippe, Detmold |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The left half of the note is occupied by a finely engraved vignette of the Hermannsdenkmal monument, the colossal statue of the Germanic chieftain Arminius raising his sword aloft, set against a wooded hillside. To the right, the denomination "Zwanzig Mark" is rendered in large, ornate blackletter script, with the serial number printed in red at the top. The text body, in Fraktur typeface, states the promise to pay by the Landesbank des Fürstentums Lippe in Detmold, dated 13 November 1918, above four manuscript signatures of issuing officials; a pale green guilloche underprint bearing the numeral "20" appears to the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Zwanzig Mark Für die Einlösung dieses Scheines haftet der Lippische Staat |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Landesbank des Fürstentums Lippe was the state bank of one of the smallest sovereign territories in the German Empire — the Principality of Lippe, with a population under 150,000 at the time of issue. Emergency paper money from this institution is uncommon precisely because Lippe had so little economic infrastructure of its own; most everyday commerce in the region was conducted using Reich-issued currency, leaving local notgeld issues with limited practical reach and short circulation windows.
The 1918 date places this firmly in the wartime fiscal strain that forced dozens of German state and municipal institutions to issue supplementary paper. Lippe's output was modest compared to larger states.