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!
500 000 Mark Gewerkschaft ver. Constantin der Große
| Issuer | Gewerkschaft ver. Constantin der Große, Bochum |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Die Gewerkschaft ver. Constantin der Große in Bochum zahlt gegen diesen Gutschein Fünfhunderttausend Mark 500 000 500 000 Die Einlösung muß bis zum 30. November 1923 erfolgen. Gewerkschaft ver. Constantin der Große. Bochum, Juli 1923. |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in dark red on cream paper, the reverse carries an elaborate guilloche pattern composed of dense lathe-work filling the entire field, with two large rosette medallions flanking a central scalloped cartouche. Within the cartouche, the crossed hammer-and-pick mining emblem of the colliery appears above the numeral '500 000' and the abbreviation 'Mk.', the whole enclosed within a fine rectangular guilloche 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 |
Issued during the height of the German hyperinflation emergency, this is a notgeld piece from the Gewerkschaft vereinigte Constantin der Große, a coal mining cooperative operating out of Bochum in the Ruhr. The Ruhr was the industrial heart of German coal production, and the region was under French and Belgian military occupation from January 1923 — the passive resistance campaign that followed created acute wage-payment crises, forcing industrial employers to print their own emergency currency in denominations that climbed almost weekly.
By mid-1923, 500,000 Mark had become a routine wage-related denomination rather than an extraordinary sum. The colliery's direct involvement in issuing scrip reflects how completely the Reichsbank had lost control of day-to-day monetary mechanics in occupied industrial zones.