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5 000 000 Mark Rheinisches Braunkohlen-Syndikat
| Issuer | Rheinisches Braunkohlen-Syndikat G.m.b.H., Köln |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Size | 159 x 93 mm |
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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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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in rose-red on cream paper, the reverse is dominated by a dense guilloche underprint with a serrated outer border. At centre, a large vignette of two crossed mining hammers (Schlägel und Eisen) enclosed within an ornate lozenge-shaped guilloche frame is flanked by two smaller rosette medallions. The denomination '5.000.000' appears in large spaced numerals on both the left and right of the central vignette, with 'MARK' inscribed below it; the issuer name 'RHEINISCHES BRAUNKOHLEN-SYNDIKAT' runs horizontally across the upper portion of the field above the central device, with 'G.M.B.H.' lettered above the crossed hammers. |
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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.