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| Issuer | Phoenix Aktien-Gesellschaft für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Printer | Greven & Bechtold, Köln, Germany |
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| Obverse description | Typeset notgeld on pale green-tinted paper, enclosed within an ornate letterpress border of repeated floral and scroll motifs with the denomination '50 MILLIONEN' running vertically along both side margins. The upper and lower borders carry the legend 'FÜNFZIG MILLIONEN MARK' in bold capitals, while the central field bears the issuer name 'PHOENIX' in large display type above the company subtitle, followed by the voucher text 'GUTSCHEIN ÜBER' and the denomination 'Fünfzig Millionen MARK' rendered in large copperplate script. The date 'DÜSSELDORF, den 5. Sept. 1923' appears at lower left alongside the issuer name repeated at lower right above two manuscript signatures, with the printer's imprint 'GREVEN & BECHTOLD, KÖLN' at the very foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | FÜNFZIG MILLIONEN MARK PHOENIX Aktien-Gesellschaft für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb GUTSCHEIN ÜBER Fünfzig Millionen MARK Dieser Gutschein hat bis einen Monat nach Widerruf Gültigkeit und wird bei den in den Tageszeitungen angegebenen Stellen eingelöst. DÜSSELDORF, den 5. Sept. 1923. PHOENIX Aktien-Gesellschaft für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb GREVEN & BECHTOLD, KÖLN |
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| Comments |
Phoenix AG was one of the major Ruhr coal and steel combines, and like dozens of industrial firms during the hyperinflation peak of mid-to-late 1923, it issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — to pay workers when the Reichsbank simply could not print and distribute denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. A 50-million Mark note that would have seemed obscene in early 1923 was, by August, barely enough for a loaf of bread.
Greven & Bechtold in Cologne were a commercial printing house pressed into high-volume emergency work during this period, not specialist security printers.