Catalog
3 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Dorsten (City of Dorsten) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 3 MARK Jubiläumsgeld zum 675 jährigen Bestehen der Stadt Dorsten 3 MARK |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in warm ochre-brown with blue accents. The four corners each bear a large stylised numeral '3' flanked by diagonal 'MARK' lettering, creating a bold frame around a central oval vignette of a panoramic townscape of historical Dorsten with prominent church spires set against a blue clouded sky, reflected in water below. The lower margin carries the city name and a Low German dialect verse inscription, with the designer's initials 'JH' visible at the lower right. |
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| Comments |
Dorsten is a small town in Westphalia, and its municipal notgeld issues were a direct product of the coin shortages that paralyzed everyday retail commerce in Germany from 1917 onward. Cities, towns, communes, and individual businesses all scrambled for authorization — or simply proceeded without it — to print low-denomination emergency currency. A 3 Mark piece sits at the upper edge of what municipalities typically issued, suggesting this was intended to cover larger routine transactions rather than small change.
The DeNG reference places this within the comprehensive Grabowski-Mehl catalog of German notgeld. The suffix range 282.1–5/6 indicates multiple varieties exist for this issuer — likely differing in date, serial style, or minor typographic detail, distinctions that matter considerably to specialists assembling complete sets.