5 Mark

Konstanz was in an unusual geographic position during the Weimar inflation years — the city sits directly on the Swiss border, and Swiss francs circulated alongside German marks in local commerce throughout the crisis period. That proximity to hard currency made the municipality acutely aware of how fast the mark was losing ground, and local notgeld issues like this one were as much a civic stabilization measure as a collector piece.

Benno Eggert, a Berlin-based sculptor and medallist, designed notgeld for multiple German municipalities during the early 1920s. His involvement here is worth noting — he was not a jobbing printer's artist but a trained sculptor, and the series reflects that.