Catalog
20 Mark
| Issuer | Handelskammer des Memelgebiets (Chamber of Commerce of the Memel Territory) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1922) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Multicolour pictorial reverse in green, blue, and brown tones, divided into three vignette panels framed by a stylised oak-leaf and acorn border. The left panel presents a cow in a pastoral meadow, the right panel a standing horse, and the large central vignette shows a traditional thatched farmstead with livestock, evoking the rural landscape of the Memel region. A scroll cartouche at the top centre bears the inscription 'Memel', while the denomination '20 Mark' is repeated in gothic lettering at the lower left and right, with 'Notgeld der Handelskammer' inscribed centrally below the main vignette. |
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| Variants | P#6a - watermark: sculptured chain P#6b - watermark: contoured chain |
| Comments |
The Memel Territory — a strip of Lithuanian coastline forcibly detached from Germany by the Versailles Treaty and placed under French administration — had a currency problem by 1922. The occupying authorities had not established a functioning monetary system, and the local Chamber of Commerce stepped in to fill the gap with a series of notgeld issues. That a commercial chamber, rather than any bank or government body, became the de facto monetary authority tells you something about how administratively improvised the French mandate actually was.
Gebrüder Parcus of Munich handled the printing — the same firm responsible for a substantial share of Bavarian notgeld output in this period. The watermarked paper was a meaningful security step for an emergency issue of this kind.