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50 000 000 000 Mark Knopffabrik Naundorf & Co
| Issuer | Knopffabrik Naundorf & Co., Schmölln (Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Size | 154 x 75 mm |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld emergency note printed in red on tan used paper stock, dated DEN 10. NOVBR. 1923. Left vignette panel bears the firm's advertisement — KNÖPFE / NEUE MUSTER / EDELARBEIT with button motifs — framed by a ruled border. The text body orders the Ortsgirokasse Schmölln (Stadthaus) to pay the bearer Mark 50 Milliarden, signed by Knopffabrik Naundorf & Co. with an oval company cachet. |
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| Obverse lettering | 50 MILLIARDEN Mk. Mark 50 MILLIARDEN KNÖPFE NEUE MUSTER EDELARBEIT NAUNDORF & Co. SCHMÖLLN S-A Die Ortsgirokasse Schmölln (Stadthaus) wolle gegen diesen Scheck Mark 50 (FÜNFZIG) Milliarden zahlen auch an Überbringer. Knopffabrik Naundorf & Co. Schmölln i. Thür. DEN 10. NOVBR. 1923 |
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| Comments |
Naundorf & Co. was a button manufacturer — "Knopffabrik" means exactly that — and like hundreds of German industrial firms in late 1923, it issued its own emergency currency rather than wait for a banking system that had effectively ceased to function. This note was printed on used paper, a direct consequence of the raw material shortages that accompanied hyperinflation: at fifty billion marks, the paper the note was printed on was worth more than the denomination it carried.
Schmölln was the center of Germany's button industry, which gives this particular Notgeld a certain grim irony — a factory that made fasteners, issuing currency to pay workers who could no longer be paid in reichsmarks without daily recalculation.