Catalog
75 Mark
| Issuer | Handelskammer des Memelgebiets (Chamber of Commerce of the Memel Territory) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Printed in brown and blue on a light ground, the obverse is enclosed within an ornate guilloche border with the denomination numeral '75' at each corner and the central text 'Fünfundsiebzig Mark' set in large Gothic script over an elaborate guilloche underprint. The issuing authority, 'Notgeld der Handelskammer des Memelgebiets,' is inscribed across the upper register. Four manuscript facsimile signatures appear below the denomination text, accompanied by a French-language authorization line — 'Autorisé: Memel, le 22 février 1922, le Haut-Commissaire Représentant des Puissances Alliées' — with a further countersignature at lower right and the printer's imprint 'GEBR. PARCUS MÜNCHEN' at the foot. |
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| Reverse lettering | Memel Notgeld der Handelskammer 75 Mark Neues Sägewerk Altes Sägewerk |
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| Comments |
The Memel Territory was detached from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles and placed under French administration in 1920, pending a final settlement. The Handelskammer — a regional chamber of commerce rather than a central bank — issued this note because the territory lacked any proper monetary authority of its own. It was an improvised solution to a genuinely unclear political situation.
Gebrüder Parcus in Munich had a long record printing Notgeld and emergency issues during the inflationary chaos of the early Weimar years. The watermark is one of the few concessions to security on what was, functionally, a stopgap instrument. Lithuania seized the territory by force in January 1923, rendering the entire Handelskammer series obsolete within months of issue.