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50 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Bünde (City Treasury of Bünde, Westphalia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 141 x 85 mm |
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| Obverse description | The face is printed in dark brown and blue-grey on a cream paper ground, with a fine guilloche lattice underprint across the entire field. The header reads 'Gutschein der Stadt Bünde i. W.' in Roman type, below which the denomination 'Fünfzig Milliarden Mark' is rendered in large ornate Gothic blackletter script. A central vignette in the underprint shows a seated armoured knight bearing a shield, flanked on the right margin by two decorative cartouches enclosing the numeral '50'; the issue date 'Bünde, den 1. November 1923', the redemption clause, the authority line 'DER MAGISTRAT', and manuscript signatures appear in the lower half, with the serial prefix letter and number in the lower left corner. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein der Stadt Bünde i. W. Fünfzig Milliarden Mark Die Stadtkasse löst diesen Gutschein bis 1. Februar 1924 ein. Bünde, den 1. November 1923. DER MAGISTRAT W. Cordes, Bünde i. W. |
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| Comments |
Bünde's 50-billion Mark note is a product of Germany's hyperinflation peak — October 1923, when the Reichsmark was collapsing fast enough that municipal treasuries across Westphalia were issuing their own emergency Notgeld simply to meet weekly payrolls. The Stadtkasse, ordinarily a routine municipal cashier's office, briefly became a de facto currency issuer by necessity rather than mandate.
W. Cordes was a local lithographic firm, not a specialist banknote printer, and the production quality reflects that. The denomination itself — fifty billion — was obsolete almost before the ink dried; within weeks, the Rentenmark reform of November 1923 wiped the entire series from circulation.