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500 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Cities of Eschweiler and Stolberg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld issued jointly by Eschweiler and Stolberg, printed in dark brown and rose on plain paper. The centre carries the denomination "Fünfhundert Milliarden Mark" in large Gothic blackletter script beneath the heading "Gutschein über", with the date 5 Nov 1923 and the facsimile signatures of the two Bürgermeisters below. Two circular municipal seals flank the signature line, and a red overprint along the left margin records the validity extension issued by the Aachen regional authority to 5 April 1924; a vertical red serial number panel appears on the right edge. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 500 Milliarden Mark ESCHWEILER STOLBERG RHL. 500 MILLIARDEN MARK |
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| Comments |
Eschweiler and Stolberg, both industrial towns in the Rhineland coalfield, jointly issued this note during the hyperinflationary peak of late 1923, when municipal and commercial authorities across Germany were legally permitted to print emergency currency — Notgeld — to meet local payroll and retail demands. By the time denominations reached the hundreds of billions of Marks, the Reichsbank's own printing capacity was simply overwhelmed.
The joint issuance between two neighboring municipalities is uncommon and likely reflects shared administrative infrastructure rather than any formal monetary union. Merkelbach's catalog reference 3334 places it firmly within the documented Rhine-Aachen regional emergency issues.