5 Mark Reichskassenschein

The Reichskassenschein series occupied an awkward institutional middle ground — these were not Reichsbank notes but direct obligations of the Reich treasury, meaning the state itself, not the central bank, stood behind them. The 5 Mark denomination circulated heavily among working-class transactions, and the corrugated hemp paper used from this issue onward was a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure, producing a distinctive ribbed texture that was difficult to replicate outside the Reichsdruckerei's own production process.

Alexander Zick's involvement placed this note within a broader decorative reform in German official printing — he was primarily known as a painter and muralist, and his engagement with banknote design was part of a conscious move away from the dry engraving conventions of earlier imperial issues. Pick 8 superseded the 1899 type; the hemp substrate change is the clearest physical marker separating the two.