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5 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtverwaltung Bad Lippspringe (City Administration of Bad Lippspringe) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 000 000 000 Marks (5 000 000 000) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld (emergency money) voucher printed in dark violet on a green guilloche underprint with an ornamental border of interlocking geometric motifs. The large denomination title "Fünf Milliarden Mark" is set in bold Gothic script at the top, below which the redemption text is printed in smaller letterpress. At centre-left, an applied circular official seal of the city of Bad Lippspringe bears the municipal arms, with a handwritten serial number beneath. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain reverse showing a complete bleed-through impression of the obverse text and ornamental border in mirror image, rendered in pale violet on unprinted white paper stock. The municipal seal and signature are visible in reverse as a result of the single-sided letterpress printing method typical of hyperinflation-era Notgeld issues. |
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| Comments |
German municipal administrations were authorized to issue their own emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflation of 1923, and by the time denominations reached the billions of marks, the notes were being printed, issued, and rendered worthless within days. Bad Lippspringe, a small spa town in Westphalia, relied on the local printer H. Vahle to produce this 5,000,000,000 Mark piece rather than contracting with any of the large commercial press houses.
The Reichsbank's withdrawal of the old mark was completed by late 1923, making most Notgeld of this denomination redeemable for a fraction of a Rentenmark pfennig — effectively nothing.