2000 Mark Bond

Cologne issued bonds like this one as part of a broader municipal debt strategy during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923, when the Reichsmark was losing value faster than the Reichsdruckerei could print it. Cities across Germany turned to their own paper obligations partly to manage local payroll and procurement costs, partly to create instruments that could be exchanged or redeemed on terms set locally rather than by a federal banking system in freefall.

The dry stamp is the authentication detail worth noting — applied post-printing at the issuing office, it distinguished legitimate municipal obligations from the enormous volume of counterfeit Notgeld circulating that year.