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| Issuer | Rheinisches Braunkohlen-Syndikat G.m.b.H., Köln |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Pink and dark red letterpress note with an elaborate guilloche border and a large diagonal watermark-style underprint reading 'RHEINISCHES BRAUNKOHLEN SYNDIKAT' across the centre field. The denomination 'Fünf Millionen Mark' is set in large Fraktur script at centre, beneath the issuer legend 'das Rheinische Braunkohlen-Syndikat G.m.b.H. in Köln'; series designation 'Serie B' appears at upper left, with a serial number at upper right. The lower portion carries a text block stating redemption conditions dated Köln, 1. August 1923, followed by two manuscript signatures of company officials and the printer's imprint 'M. DUMONT SCHAUBERG KÖLN' at the bottom margin. |
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| Obverse lettering | Gutschein das Rheinische Braunkohlen-Syndikat G. m. b. H. in Köln zahlt Fünf Millionen Mark in Reichsbanknoten bei Vorzeigung von dem in den hiesigen Tageszeitungen bekanntzugebenden Zeitpunkt ab an der Hauptkasse in Köln. — Dieser Schein verliert seine Gültigkeit einen Monat nach Aufkündigung. — Köln, 1. August 1923. Rheinisches Braunkohlen-Syndikat G. m. b. H. Serie B M. DUMONT SCHAUBERG KÖLN |
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| Comments |
The Rheinisches Braunkohlen-Syndikat was the cartel controlling Rhenish brown coal — lignite — production, and like hundreds of German industrial concerns in the hyperinflation of 1923, it issued its own emergency currency (Notgeld) to pay workers when the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough printed marks fast enough. A 5-million-mark denomination would have seemed extraordinary even a year earlier; by mid-1923 it barely covered a day's wages.
M. Dumont Schauberg was a Cologne newspaper and commercial printing house, pressed into banknote production by necessity rather than expertise. The same presses turning out the Kölnische Zeitung were producing corporate scrip.