Catalog
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| Issuer | Stadt Rheydt (City of Rheydt) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a light green guilloche underprint across the entire field, with the denomination numeral '5000000' printed in large bold letterpress centrally in black ink and repeated in horizontal bands through the upper and lower margins. The Rheydt municipal coat of arms, a crenellated castle tower within a shield, is incorporated into the underprint vignette behind the central numeral. The printer's imprint appears at the lower right. |
| Reverse lettering | 5000000 5000000 OTTO BERGER, RHEYDT. |
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| Comments |
Rheydt issued this note during the most violent phase of the German hyperinflation, when municipal and private emergency issuers — the Notgeld system — were producing denominations that would have seemed absurd even six months earlier. By mid-1923, five million marks was roughly enough for a loaf of bread, and often not even that by the time the note reached the baker's hand.
Otto Berger was a local Rheydt printer, not a specialist securities firm, which shows in notes from this series — registration on overprinted denominations can run slightly off-axis. The Oberbürgermeister's signature, unidentified in most catalog records, was almost certainly that of a city official managing an issuing authority that had no real monetary infrastructure and was improvising by the week.