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 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Düsseldorf (City of Düsseldorf) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 000 Mark (50 000) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed in dark brown and ochre on cream paper, the obverse is centred by the municipal arms of Düsseldorf — a crowned lion passant on a hatched shield — set against a fine guilloche underprint. The denomination "Fünfzigtausend Mark" is rendered in bold blackletter script spanning the full width, with the numeral "50000" in the upper border, while the issue date "Düsseldorf, den 15. Juli 1923" and a facsimile signature of the Oberbürgermeister appear to the right. The series and serial number are positioned at lower left, with the printer's imprint "L. Schwann · Düsseldorf" at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark brown with ochre and violet underprint, dominated by a large decorative numeral composition in which the figures "50000" are rendered in interlocking circular letterforms enclosing the word "MARK" within the zero characters, all contained within an elaborate geometric and foliate border. A horizontal cartouche across the centre carries the authorisation text referencing the Reichsfinanzministerium, with the denomination in full inscribed in the top and bottom borders within a heavy ruled frame. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
During the hyperinflation of 1923, German municipal and regional authorities were legally permitted to issue their own emergency currency — Notgeld — to compensate for the chronic shortage of Reichsbank notes, which could not be printed fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. Stadt Düsseldorf was among hundreds of such issuers. L. Schwann was a Düsseldorf-based commercial printer and publisher, not a specialist security printer, which is entirely typical of this period when normal procurement standards had become irrelevant.
At 50,000 Mark, this denomination would have felt substantial in early 1923 and worthless by autumn.