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50 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Altenburg (City of Altenburg), Thuringia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Spielkartenfabrik A.G., Altenburg, Germany |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Nötgeld der Stadt Altenburg / Thür. 50 MILLIONEN MARK Fünfzig Millionen Mark Ausgegeben im Oktober 1923. Verfallstag: Ein Monat nach Aufruf Der Stadtrat Der Stadtdirektor SPIELKARTENFABRIK A.-G., ALTENBURG |
| Reverse description | The reverse is essentially unprinted, presenting the blank paper surface through which the obverse design shows as a ghosted impression. The show-through of the town hall vignette, denomination text, and official seal are clearly visible as mirror images, confirming the single-sided letterpress production method typical of inflationary Notgeld issues. |
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| Comments |
Altenburg's Spielkartenfabrik — better known internationally as the playing card manufacturer that produced Skat decks — pivoted to emergency currency printing during the hyperinflation peak of 1923, as scores of German municipalities scrambled to commission notes locally rather than wait on an overwhelmed Reichsdruckerei. The firm had the presses, the paper stock, and the ink; the denomination reflects where Germany was by late 1923, when fifty million marks was roughly the cost of a streetcar ticket.
Notgeld of this magnitude is common as a category but genuinely specific as an artifact — each issuing city tells you something about local industrial capacity in a crisis.