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| Issuer | Handelskammer Aachen (Aachen Chamber of Commerce) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-green Notgeld issued on plain paper with a green letterpress guilloche border frame enclosing the entire design. The issuer's name 'Handelskammer Aachen' appears in large serif type at the top, with the denomination 'Drei Millionen Mark' set in bold display type across the centre, flanked by the numeral value 'Mk. 3,000,000' at upper right and a red serial number at upper left. A circular official stamp of the Handelskammer zu Aachen is impressed at lower centre, accompanied by three manuscript signatures to its right, with the date 'Aachen, 15. August 1923' and the printer's imprint 'Franz Keppler, Aachen' at the foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | Handelskammer Aachen Gutschein über Mk. 3,000,000 Drei Millionen Mark Dieser Gutschein wird von einem durch die Aachener Zeitungen noch näher bekannt zu gebendem Tage ab bei den Aachener Banken eingelöst. Aachen, 15. August 1923. Handelskammer Aachen Franz Keppler, Aachen |
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| Comments |
The Aachen Chamber of Commerce was among hundreds of German commercial and municipal bodies that issued their own emergency paper during the hyperinflation of 1923 — a period in which the Reichsbank's own presses could not keep pace with devaluation. By mid-1923, three million marks was barely enough for a loaf of bread, and notgeld denominations were climbing so fast that some issues became obsolete before distribution was complete.
Printed locally by Franz Keppler, this note never left the Aachen region in any meaningful circulation sense — Handelskammer issues were quasi-scrip, accepted by participating local merchants rather than as national tender.