Catalog
5 Reichsmark
| Issuer | Stadt Stuttgart (City of Stuttgart) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Value | 5 Marks (5 RM) |
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| Obverse description | Brown and red toned note printed on a fine guilloche underprint ground. The heading 'Stadt Stuttgart' appears at the top centre in bold Gothic script, flanked by the numeral '5' in each upper corner. Below, the denomination 'Fünf Reichsmark' is set in large display type beneath the word 'Gutschein über'. A circular red seal of the City of Stuttgart bearing a prancing horse is positioned at the lower left, alongside a handwritten signature of the Oberbürgermeister and the series designation 'REIHE 1' with serial number in red at lower right. A watermark-style vignette of the Stuttgart coat-of-arms horse appears as a pale underprint in the centre field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark purple-brown and centres on a photographic halftone vignette of the Altes Schloss (Old Castle) Stuttgart, showing its characteristic cylindrical towers and Renaissance facade with a large tree in the foreground. Decorative geometric guilloche borders frame the left and right edges of the note. The denomination '5 RM' appears in the upper left and upper right corners above the central vignette. |
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| Comments |
This note belongs to the wave of local emergency currency — Notgeld in the broadest sense — issued by German municipalities in the final weeks of the war as the Reichsbank's distribution network collapsed entirely. Stuttgart fell to French forces on April 22, 1945, meaning any city-issued scrip from that year had an extraordinarily short window of practical use, measured in days rather than months.
Municipal issues of this type were typically produced on whatever printing equipment remained operational and were frequently demonetized before significant quantities ever changed hands. Surviving examples owe their existence more to chance than to low circulation.