Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 000 000 Mark Handelskammer
| Issuer | Handelskammer für die Provinz Birkenfeld |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Yes |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The note is divided into two distinct vertical panels printed in red and grey-blue. The left stub panel carries the series designation 'SERIE A' at top, a large circular guilloche underprint with the denomination '50 Millionen' in bold red letterpress, the serial number, and the issuer name in red Gothic script at foot. The main right panel is enclosed within a double-ruled red border and presents a fine grey-blue guilloche underprint with a large interlocked 'HK' monogram watermark-style vignette at centre; the heading 'Handelskammer für die Provinz Birkenfeld' arches across the top in red Gothic script, followed by the emergency currency designation 'Gutschein über 50 Millionen Mark' in large red type. Below the denomination, a three-line legal text in small Gothic script attests Reichsbank guarantee, the issue place and date 'Idar, den 15. August 1923' appear in the lower field, and two manuscript facsimile signatures of the Vorsitzender and the Syndikus are printed beneath their respective titles. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 50 Millionen HANDELS- KAMMER PROVINZ BIRKENFELD |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Birkenfeld was an unusual administrative anomaly — a Prussian exclave physically surrounded by the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, separated from the main Prussian territory by a corridor of foreign soil. When hyperinflation forced German chambers of commerce to issue emergency Notgeld in 1923, the Handelskammer für die Provinz Birkenfeld was operating in precisely this kind of peripheral, bureaucratically awkward jurisdiction. The 50-million Mark denomination places this note squarely in the August–September 1923 window, when the Reichsmark was collapsing fast enough that multi-million figures became routine wage denominations within weeks of printing.