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5 Mark
| Issuer | Gemeinde Tonndorf-Lohe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The face is contained within an ornate shield-shaped cartouche printed in brown and gold, with decorative scrollwork and grape cluster embellishments at the lower corners. A large denomination numeral '5' in orange-red dominates the centre, overlaid by the Gothic script legend 'Gutschein' across the upper register and 'Mark' in bold letterpress along the lower register. The central text field carries the issue and validity dates, the name of the issuing municipality, and a manuscript signature of the Gemeindevorsteher, with the artist's monogram 'OKRZ' at the lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a central vignette of a blindfolded Justice figure in brown letterpress, holding a balance scale in the left hand and a sword in the right, set against a cream ground with a dense red arabesque underprint. Two unfurling ribbon banners flanking the figure bear a German aphorism in Gothic script, with the lower left ribbon inscribed 'Fleisch-Karte'. The denomination 'Fünf Mark' appears in bold Gothic letterpress across the upper portion in orange-red and brown. |
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| Comments |
Tonndorf-Lohe was a small Hamburg suburb that, like hundreds of German municipalities in 1921, resorted to issuing its own emergency paper — Notgeld — to address a severe shortage of small-denomination Reichsmark coinage. The hyperinflationary spiral had not yet peaked, but coin hoarding and metal shortages had already paralyzed everyday retail transactions. Municipal authorities issued these notes on their own credit, with no backing beyond local goodwill.
The community was later absorbed into Hamburg in 1927, which effectively ended any residual redemption obligation. Most Tonndorf-Lohe Notgeld survives in collector condition rather than circulated — local issues at this denomination were often sold directly to collectors at a premium, muddying any straightforward reading of them as pure emergency currency.