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500 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Konstanz (Stadtverwaltung Konstanz) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Benno Eggert |
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| Obverse description | Printed in purple and salmon-pink on plain paper, the obverse is dominated by a large central diamond-shaped vignette enclosing the numeral '500' and denomination 'M' within a layered geometric frame, surrounded by a circular legend in Gothic script. Four decorative corner cartouches with stylised angular ornamental motifs frame the composition. The validity clause appears at left, the issuance date and Oberbürgermeister's manuscript signature at right, a circular municipal seal of Konstanz at lower centre, and the issuer's name in large Gothic blackletter at the foot; below the border the designer credit reads 'ENTWURF VON BENNO EGGERT'. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Fünfhundert Mark / HUSS WIRD VERBRANNT / Der Hahn, der kräht und bläht sich blass, - Der Bauer schafft und denkt sich was. |
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| Comments |
Konstanz sits on the Swiss border, and in 1922 that geography mattered. Severe cross-border currency arbitrage during the early Weimar inflation pushed municipalities throughout the Baden region to issue Notgeld not merely to cover small-change shortages but to keep local purchasing power from hemorrhaging south. Stadt Konstanz was among the more prolific of these municipal issuers.
Benno Eggert was a Konstanz-based graphic artist whose work on several local Notgeld issues gave them a visual coherence unusual for emergency paper. The 500 Mark denomination places this firmly in the transitional inflation phase — before the zeroes multiplied beyond comprehension later that year.