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500 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Köln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black and green on cream paper, with the issuer's title 'Stadt Köln' in Gothic blackletter script at the top centre within a decorative guilloche underprint. The large denomination '500 Milliarden Mark' is set in bold blackletter type occupying the central field, flanked on the right by a vertical panel bearing the text 'MILLIARDEN' rotated 90 degrees against an ornate green guilloche rosette. A red circular official stamp of the city of Cologne appears at lower left, alongside a block of legal tender text, the place and date 'Köln, den 12. November 1923', series designation 'SERIE A', and a facsimile signature of the Oberbürgermeister (Konrad Adenauer) at lower right. The printer's imprint 'ZIEGLER BECKMANN, KÖLN' appears at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Red circular official seal of the City of Cologne applied to the lower left of the obverse, with a corresponding impression visible on the reverse. |
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| Comments |
Cologne's municipal administration issued this note during the hyperinflation peak of late 1923, when the Reichsbank could not supply emergency currency fast enough and cities, districts, and private firms were authorized to produce their own Notgeld to keep commerce moving. At 500 billion Mark, this denominaton sits near the upper end of what municipal issuers were printing before the Rentenmark stabilization in November 1923 effectively killed the entire series overnight.
The signature is Konrad Adenauer's — then Oberbürgermeister of Cologne, two decades before he became West Germany's first Chancellor. Ziegler Beckmann was a local Cologne press, which kept the production chain entirely within the city.