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5 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Heidelberg (City Municipality of Heidelberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Stadtgemeinde Heidelberg Gutschein über Fünf Mark einlösbar ab 1. Februar 1919. Heidelberg, den 16. Oktober 1918. Stadtverwaltung: Oberbürgermeister 1. Bürgermeister Rechnungsamt Stadtrentamt |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in olive-green on a tan-toned paper with a fine dot underprint, the layout divided into three vertical panels. The left and right panels each carry two circular denomination medallions bearing the numeral '5', set within vertically striped guilloche columns. The central field presents a finely engraved vignette of Heidelberg Castle in landscape format, enclosed within a scalloped oval frame with concentric guilloche borders; the issuing authority 'Stadtgemeinde Heidelberg' is inscribed at the top in Fraktur, and the legend 'Gutschein über 5 Mark' appears below the vignette, with the printer's imprint at the foot. |
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| Comments |
Heidelberg's 5 Mark Notgeld of 1918 belongs to the wave of municipal emergency currency that flooded Germany as the imperial economy buckled under four years of war. By late 1918, the Reichsbank could not keep small-denomination coinage in circulation — silver had been withdrawn, zinc and iron substitutes were hoarded or lost, and towns were left to fill the gap themselves. Hundreds of municipalities did exactly this, each commissioning local or regional printers to produce notes backed by nothing more than civic authority.
Osterrieth in Frankfurt was a capable commercial printer, not a security specialist — which shows in the relatively modest anti-counterfeiting measures typical of municipal issues from this period.