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 Messamt für die Mustermessen in Leipzig
| Issuer | Messamt für die Mustermessen in Leipzig |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| 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 | The obverse is divided into two principal zones: at left, a black-and-white vignette renders a bustling street scene on the Petersstrasse during the Leipzig trade fair, with crowds of figures beneath tall building facades, captioned below in small text. To the right, the denomination is set in bold Fraktur script reading 'Fünfhunderttausend' above the large numeral '500,000 Mark', with a green guilloche underprint. Below the denomination, a text clause in Gothic script states the redemption conditions, followed by the place and date of issue 'Leipzig, im August 1923', a red serial number, and the issuer's name 'MESSAMT FÜR DIE MUSTERMESSEN IN LEIPZIG' with two manuscript signatures. Green typeset borders carrying the repeated legend '500,000 MARK' frame the top and bottom edges. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Notgeld mit Genehmigung des Reichsfinanzministeriums zur Herbstmesse 1923 herausgegeben vom MESSAMT FÜR DIE MUSTERMESSEN IN LEIPZIG "Es muss beides Keuffer und Vorkeuffer beysammen sein und die Sache dahin erwogen werden, das beiderseits Leuthe die freyen Märkte zu besuchen nicht abgeschreckt oder abgehalten werden" anno 1581 |
| 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 |
The Messamt für die Mustermessen — the trade fair authority administering the Leipzig Sample Fair — issued notgeld in 1923 not out of civic obligation but commercial necessity. The hyperinflation consuming Germany that year made it impossible to pay workers, vendors, and contractors at the fair grounds without locally issued emergency currency. The Leipzig trade fair was, by this point, one of the most internationally significant commercial events in Central Europe, which gave the Messamt both the institutional standing and the practical incentive to print its own.
Half a million marks sounds extraordinary; by mid-1923 it barely covered a streetcar fare.