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20 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtverwaltung Buer (City of Buer, Westphalia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Size | 118 × 81 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark red-brown on cream paper with a geometric diamond-and-floral underprint border framing the entire note. The issuer's title 'Gutschein der Stadt Buer i. Wesff.' appears in Gothic blackletter script at upper left, with the denomination '20 M' repeated in the upper and lower right corners. The value 'Zwanzig Mark' is set in large Gothic blackletter across the centre, beneath which a multi-line redemption text in small Gothic script states the conditions of acceptance by all municipal cashiers, followed by the date 'Buer i. W., den 4. November 1918' and the issuing authority 'Der Magistrat:' with two manuscript signatures. At right, a circular vignette presents a detailed engraved view of the Buer town hall. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in a muted rose-red on cream paper with the same geometric diamond-pattern guilloche underprint border as the obverse, with the denomination numeral '20' repeated in each corner within plain rectangular frames. The large Gothic blackletter text 'Zwanzig Mark' runs across the centre, overlaid by the municipal coat of arms of Buer — a shield bearing a crenellated tower above a stylised tree — printed in the same rose tone. A violet handstamp reading 'Ungültig' (invalid) appears diagonally across the upper portion, and a magenta-printed inscription 'Beglaubigt:' is present at lower left, accompanied by a manuscript cancellation signature below. |
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Buer issued this note in 1918 as a municipality, not yet the industrial suburb it would become after its 1928 forced merger into Gelsenkirchen. The Stadtverwaltung had genuine authority to issue emergency currency — Notgeld — under the pressures of wartime coin hoarding and a Reichsbank system stretched well beyond its capacity. These municipal issues were stopgaps, locally authorized and locally redeemable, with no federal guarantee behind them.
Westphalian Notgeld from 1918 tends to be the less-collected early wave: purely functional, issued before municipalities discovered that collectors would pay premiums for decorative series, which arrived in force from 1920 onward.