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50 000 000 000 Mark Kreis Arnsberg
| Issuer | Kreisausschuß des Kreises Arnsberg (District Committee of Arnsberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain paper Notgeld note with text-only layout in black letterpress on an off-white ground, bearing a lightly printed guilloche watermark-style underprint in the centre. The denomination 'Fünfzig Milliarden Mark' is set in large Gothic blackletter type beneath the heading 'Notgeld des Kreises Arnsberg.' The body text states the obligation of the Kommunalkasse des Kreises Arnsberg, the date 'Arnsberg, den 24. Oktober 1923,' and three manuscript signatures above the legend 'Nur gültig mit Dienstsiegel (Trockenstempel) des Landrats.' A red serial number appears to the right, and a vertical cautionary text is printed along the left margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted and plain, showing show-through of the obverse text and red serial number in mirror image. A circular embossed dry official seal (Trockenstempel) of the Landrat is visible in the lower right area, applied as the mandatory validation stamp, with the legend around its circumference reading 'ARNSBERG' and additional text. |
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| Comments |
One of hundreds of Notgeld issues flooding the Westphalian administrative system in late 1923, this 50-billion Mark piece dates from the absolute peak of the Weimar hyperinflation — by November of that year, a single US dollar exchanged for roughly 4.2 trillion Marks. District committees like Arnsberg's Kreisausschuß were printing emergency currency not out of administrative ambition but simple necessity: Reichsbank notes were arriving so far behind the devaluation curve that local governments could not meet payroll without issuing their own.
F. W. Becker was a local Arnsberg printer pressed into monetary service, not a security printing house. The embossed dry seal substituted for intaglio or watermark security that such a printer could not provide.