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5 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Bad Berka (Stadtgemeinde Bad Berka) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein der Stadt Bad Berka Fünf Mark 5 Bad Berka, den 15. November 1918 Der Stadtgemeindevorstrand und Gemeinderat Bürgermeister. Vorsitzender. |
| Reverse description | Plain cream paper reverse with a fine wavy-line guilloche underprint filling the field, enclosed within a chain-link ornamental border with decorative foliate corner pieces. The text, printed in blue-black letterpress, states the note's redeemability at the Kämmereikasse, the städtische Sparkasse in Bad Berka, and the Gewerbe- und Landwirtschaftsbank e.G.m.b.H. in Weimar und Bad Berka; the denomination numeral 5 appears twice flanking the central text block. A stamped serial number appears in the upper portion, and the lower section carries the redemption notice specifying recall by 1 February 1919. |
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| Comments |
Bad Berka is a small spa town in Thuringia, and its municipal authority — like hundreds of German townships in late 1918 — issued its own emergency paper when coin shortages became unmanageable in the final year of the war. These Stadtgemeinde notes occupied a legal grey zone: not sanctioned Reichsbank currency, but tolerated out of practical necessity.
The 5 Mark denomination is on the larger end for municipal Notgeld of this period, which typically clustered around Pfennig values. That alone suggests this was issued to cover transactions the smaller denominations couldn't handle as the economy deteriorated through the armistice months.