Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Tomans Overprint on 20 Marks of Germany
| Issuer | Azerbaijan People's Government |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The obverse retains the original Reichsbanknote 20 Mark design dated 19. Februar 1914, printed in blue over a fine guilloche underprint, with the Gothic inscription 'Zwanzig Mark' at upper centre flanked by elaborate rosette medallions and the Imperial German eagle within a guilloche cartouche at upper right; the serial number runs vertically in red along both side margins. Bold red Persian overprints reading '۵ پنج' and '۵ تومان' are applied in each corner, accompanied by a red handstamp of the Azerbaijan People's Government at lower centre, provisionally reassigning the note a face value of 5 Tomans. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | N·0232079 REICHSBANKNOTE 20 ZWANZIG MARK پنج ۵ تومان ۵ |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Azerbaijan People's Government — the short-lived Soviet-backed administration that controlled Iranian Azerbaijan from late 1945 into mid-1946 — needed circulating currency quickly and had no press infrastructure of its own. The solution was to overprint captured or requisitioned German Reichsbank notes from the First World War era, specifically the 20 Mark issue of 1914–1918, with a Toman denomination in Persian script.
The underlying Reichsdruckerei notes were nearly three decades old by the time the overprint was applied, long demonetized in Germany. That a provincial separatist government in northwestern Iran was still putting them into circulation in 1945–46 says everything about the improvised nature of the regime's monetary arrangements. The overprint itself is typographically crude — applied locally, not in Berlin.