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500 000 Mark Gütersloh
| Issuer | Stadt Gütersloh (City of Gütersloh) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | A plain letterpress composition in the utilitarian Notgeld format, the obverse carries the full text of the payment obligation addressed to the Stadtkämmerei (City Treasurer's Office) of Gütersloh, with the nominal value stated in both words and figures. The note is dated 16 August 1923 and bears the authority of the Magistrat der Stadt Gütersloh, with no pictorial vignettes or decorative underprint. The layout is strictly typographic, consistent with the emergency currency conventions of the German hyperinflation period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in dark blue-grey over a light stippled underprint, the reverse carries two architectural vignettes of Gütersloh: a half-timbered building at the left and a church steeple with adjacent rooftops at the right, a horse-drawn cart occupying the foreground between them. The city arms appear in a cartouche at the upper centre, framed by ornate scrollwork, while the face value in Fraktur script, "Fünfhunderttausend Mark", dominates the centre in large calligraphic lettering with "Stadt Gütersloh" set beneath; the numeral "500 Tausend" is repeated in each corner within decorative panels. |
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| Comments |
Gütersloh issued this 500,000 Mark note during the acute phase of Germany's 1923 hyperinflation, when municipal and commercial authorities across the country were authorized to produce their own emergency currency — Notgeld — to cover a chronic shortage of legal tender that had been rendered nearly worthless by runaway price increases. By the time denominations this large were being printed, the Reichsbank's own presses could barely keep pace with demand, and local issuers frequently contracted regional printers on short notice, which accounts for the wide variation in print quality seen across Gütersloh's higher-denomination pieces.