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5 Mark
| Issuer | City of Altona (Stadtkasse Altona) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Mark |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Yellow and violet Aushilfsschein on cream paper, with a yellow guilloche underprint carrying large numeral '5' watermarks at left and right margins. A central purple oval vignette shows a stylised cityscape with church spires, over which the denomination 'Fünf Mark' is printed in bold black Fraktur script. The text body above states acceptance conditions and the expiry date, while four manuscript signatures appear below the date line 'Altona, den 2. November 1918', accompanied by a red circular city seal at lower left and the printer's imprint at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 5 Mark |
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| Comments |
Altona was an independent city in the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein throughout the First World War, administratively separate from Hamburg despite sitting directly on its western border. When the Reich's central note supply became increasingly unreliable in 1918, municipal treasuries — Stadtkassen — across Germany began issuing their own emergency Notgeld to cover the shortfall in small denomination currency. Altona was among them.
H. W. Köbner & Co. GmbH was a local Altona printing firm, not a specialist banknote printer, which is exactly what Notgeld production typically required: whoever was available and equipped. Altona itself was absorbed into Hamburg in 1937 by decree of the Greater Hamburg Act.