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 Handelskammer
| Issuer | Handelskammer Aachen (Chamber of Commerce Aachen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| 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 | Brown on buff paper, with an ornate letterpress border of interlocking guilloche patterns enclosing the main text field. At upper centre, the issuer's name 'Handelskammer Aachen' appears in Gothic script above the denomination 'Fünf Millionen Mark' in large blackletter type, with the numeral '5000000' as an underprint. To the right, a separate vignette panel bears an engraved portrait bust of David Hansemann in three-quarter view, captioned 'DAVID HANSEMANN', with the words 'Fünf Millionen Mark' in Gothic lettering framing the portrait. At lower left, a circular embossed seal of the Handelskammer zu Aachen is present, alongside two manuscript signatures and the issue date 'Aachen, den 18. August 1923'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Handelskammer Aachen. Gutschein über Fünf Millionen Mark Dieser Gutschein wird von einem durch die Aachener Zeitungen noch näher bekannt zu gebenden Tage ab bei den Aachener Banken eingelöst. Aachen, den 18. August 1923. Handelskammer Aachen DAVID HANSEMANN AUG. HEINRIGS, AACHEN. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
The Handelskammer Aachen was among hundreds of German regional and municipal bodies that issued emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflation spiral of 1923, when the Reichsmark's collapse made official denominations functionally useless within days of printing. By mid-1923, denominations in the millions were not exceptional; they were routine necessity. Aug. Heinrigs was a local Aachen printer pressed into monetary service alongside commercial printers across the Rhineland.
The Rhineland occupation by French and Belgian forces following the Ruhr invasion in January 1923 complicated Aachen's economic situation further, severing supply chains and accelerating local monetary chaos beyond even the national rate.