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5 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadthauptkasse Pößneck (City of Pößneck, Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 000 000 Marks (5 000 000) |
| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Die Pößnecker Leder-Industrie Am Schabebaum Lederfabrik Emil Gebhardt G.m.b.h. Emil Brüderlein Lederwerke R. Weithase & Co. Lederwerke (Translation: The Pößneck Leather Industry At the scraping beam Emil Gebhardt Leather Factory LLC. Emil Brüderlein Leatherworks R. Weithase & Co. Leatherworks) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Signatures: © GabrielBB (CC BY-SA) |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Pößneck is a small industrial town in Thuringia, and like dozens of German municipalities in the summer and autumn of 1923, its city treasury issued emergency Notgeld when the Reichsbank simply could not supply banknotes fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. What sets this note apart is the substrate: genuine leather, not paper. Several German municipalities experimented with unconventional materials — silk, velvet, linen, aluminum foil — partly as a practical measure to produce something durable and difficult to counterfeit, partly because novelty items were known to be hoarded by collectors rather than spent, effectively letting issuers profit from unredeemed notes.
The watermark feature on leather is the genuinely curious detail here. Achieving a watermark effect on hide rather than paper requires a different mechanical process entirely, likely an embossed or blind-pressed pattern rather than a true papermaking watermark.