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4.20 Goldmark / 1 Dollar
| Issuer | Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld (City Savings Bank of Bielefeld) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Value | 4.20 Goldmark / 1 Dollar |
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| Obverse description | Yellow velvet notgeld of oval form with a scalloped lace edge, printed in dark brown ink. The central vignette shows a stylized figure standing astride a globe within a diamond-shaped frame inscribed STADT SPAR KASSE, flanked by the denomination 4,20 Goldmark above and its mirror-image below. Dense Gothic and Roman lettering radiates around the entire border, incorporating city references, exchange rate equivalencies, and the manufacturer's imprint BRÜCK & SOHN A.G. BIELEFELD, with decorative vignettes of local scenes interspersed throughout the circular surround. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 4,20 Goldmark / 1 Dollar / STADT SPAR KASSE / LINDEN-WEBEREI TO-VO-TE / BRÜCK & SOHN A.G. BIELEFELD / GES. GESCH. D.G.M. |
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| Comments |
Bielefeld's velvet Notgeld issues from 1923 are among the most technically bizarre emergency currency objects ever produced in Germany. The Stadt-Sparkasse commissioned Brück & Sohn to print on actual woven velvet fabric — not paper, not linen — during the hyperinflation peak, partly as a deliberate collectible strategy and partly because the city's linen and cloth industry made such materials locally available at a moment when paper itself was becoming scarce and absurd.
The 4.20 Goldmark / 1 Dollar denomination anchors the note's value to the U.S. dollar, a frank acknowledgment that the Papiermark had ceased to function as a reliable unit of account by mid-1923. Bielefeld's cloth-based Notgeld series attracted international collector interest almost immediately upon issue, which was very much the point.