Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Sonneberg (Stadt und Kreis Sonneberg, Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Notgeld voucher (Gutschein) printed in black on white paper with a green guilloche underprint background. The large denomination numeral '5 000 000 Mk.' appears within a prominent green rectangular panel. Below, the issuing text names the Stadtkasse Sonneberg, with the date 21. August 1923, flanked by two heraldic coat-of-arms vignettes and four manuscript signatures. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Serie D 5000000 Mark – Fünf Millionen Mark Stadt und Kreis SONNEBERG i. Thür. |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Sonneberg was a major toy manufacturing center in Thuringia, and by August 1923 the hyperinflation had accelerated so far beyond the Reich's printing capacity that municipalities were legally authorized to issue their own emergency currency — Notgeld — to meet weekly payroll. The Stadtkasse (municipal treasury) was the issuing body, not a private bank or chamber of commerce, which gave these notes a quasi-official standing within the town.
Five million marks sounds extraordinary, but by the time this note circulated it bought roughly what a few pfennigs had purchased four years earlier. Within weeks of issue, denominations like this were already obsolete.