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5 Deutsche Mark
| Issuer | Deutsche Bundesbank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960-1980 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 120 x 60 mm |
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| Obverse description | Brown, green, and yellow multicolour print with black overprint and red serial number. The central vignette reproduces Albrecht Dürer's 1505 oil painting 'Portrait of a Venetian Woman', rendered as an intaglio portrait. A fine guilloche underprint fills the background. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The P#18 five-mark note was the longest-running denomination in the first Bundesbank series, remaining in circulation from 1960 until the early 1980s — an unusual lifespan reflecting both the note's durability and the West German central bank's reluctance to redesign low-denomination paper unnecessarily. Hermann Eidenbenz, the Swiss typographer responsible for the series' visual grammar, brought a disciplined modernist restraint to the designs that was quite deliberately unlike the figurative traditions of Weimar-era German currency.
Bundesdruckerei's printing quality on this series is well-documented, but the P#18 is particularly prone to heavy soiling along the fold lines due to its intensive daily use as the smallest circulating note — fine examples are harder to locate than the scarcity figures suggest.