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50 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Elberfeld (City of Elberfeld) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark green and red on cream paper, divided into a main panel and a right-hand stub. The main panel is framed by a leafy guilloche border and carries the issuer name and denomination at the top, below which the word 'Notgeld' appears in bold Gothic script. A redemption text in German runs across the centre, over a red underprint of the Elberfeld municipal coat of arms. The large denomination 'Fünfzig Millionen Mark' is set in ornate Gothic lettering in the centre field, with the issue date 8. September 1923, a serial number, and the Oberbürgermeister's manuscript signature below. The right stub bears the city shield with a rampant lion holding an anchor, the inscription 'Stadt Elberfeld', and the numeral '50.000.000' at the foot. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark green and red on cream paper, enclosed within a leafy guilloche border matching the obverse. A large, intricately engine-turned oval guilloche vignette occupies the centre of the field, within which a rectangular cartouche carries the denomination 'FÜNFZIG MILLIONEN' in bold red capital letters. Small vignettes of the Elberfeld heraldic lion rampant appear in the upper-left and lower-right corners of the field. The issuer name and denomination are repeated in Gothic script in all four corners. |
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| Comments |
Elberfeld's municipal administration — by 1923 absorbed into the newly created city of Wuppertal, though the old civic identity persisted on emergency currency — issued this 50-million Mark note at a moment when the Reichsbank's own presses could not keep up with hyperinflation's arithmetic. Municipalities, chambers of commerce, and private firms across Germany were authorized to print Notgeld simply to keep wages payable.
Samuel Lucas was a long-established Elberfeld printing house. The denomination itself, unthinkable two years earlier, was routine by late summer 1923.