4.20 Goldmark / 1 Dollar

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.