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50 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Bamberg (City of Bamberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a detailed panoramic woodcut-style vignette of the historic Bamberg skyline across the upper half, with the city's cathedral towers, rooftops, and the Michelsberg hill rendered in fine engraved lines against an open sky. Below the panorama, two columns of Gothic-script verse in German fill the lower text field, signed by the poet at lower right. The denomination 50 000 000 FÜNFZIG MILLIONEN MARK is repeated in a decorative typeset band along the bottom margin, flanked by the numeral 50 within ornamental cartouches. |
| Reverse lettering | In Bamberg, der einst gar lustreichen Stadt, Ein löblicher Rat mich geschaffen hat. An meiner Wiege, da sind zwei Tanten, Frau Gorge und Teuerung Pate gestanden. Ihr seid zwar alle jetzt Milliardäre, War viele sogar schon Billionäre; Doch tragt Ihr Armut und Bettel im Schild, Da eine Million keinen Pfennig mehr gilt; Wie Bier gemundet und Fleisch geschmecket, Wird als Erinnerung nur noch gewecket, Indes der Feind an Ruhr und Rhein Die Peitsche schwingt zu Fron und Pein. Und dennoch – ich bin zwar nur aus Papier – Möcht' eine Hoffnung ich geben Dir: Seid einig, Ihr Deutschen, seid einig alle! Dann bringt Euch nicht Hass u. Hölle zu Falle. 50 000 000 FÜNFZIG MILLIONEN MARK 50 000 000 |
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| Comments |
Bamberg issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923, when the Reichsmark lost value so rapidly that municipal and private issuers had to print ever-larger denominations just to cover daily wages. The fifty-million-mark figure here is not exceptional for the period; by November 1923, a single US dollar exchanged for over four trillion marks, and denominations were being rendered obsolete within days of printing.
Local Notgeld from smaller Bavarian cities like Bamberg was typically printed by regional firms on short runs, often on whatever paper stock was available, which accounts for the variation in paper quality and color saturation seen across surviving examples.