2 Mark, Stadt Lügde, 1921

This copy

Accession: OM-00466
Series year: 1921
Actually issued: 1921
board_1: not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
board_2: not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
board_3: not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
Grade: UNC (IBNS)
As issued: full body, square corners, bright unfaded ink and no fold through the design. Estimated from the 600 dpi archival scan, which shows folds, soiling and edge condition but not paper crispness, pinholes, pressing or small repairs.
Estimated value: $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-26.
Dimensions: 98.2 × 65.4 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
Themes: Notgeld Serienschein Weimar Republic Lippe Charlemagne Church

The type

Type: 2 Mark, Stadt Lügde, 1921
Printer: J. C. König & Ebhardt, Hannover
Rarity: common

LügdeGermany, 1920 borders

Symbology

Charlemagne's Christmas of 784: The emperor wintered in Saxony during the long war and kept the feast at Lügde. Two towns in this batch claim him: Lippspringe for 776 and Lügde for 784, forty kilometres apart.
St. Kilianskirche: A Romanesque church of about 1150 outside the old town, one of the oldest in the region and still standing.
Two Marks: The largest denomination Lügde issued, and a sign of where prices were going by early 1921.

What was happening

Notgeld began in 1914 out of necessity: coin vanished into hoards within weeks of mobilisation and towns printed their own small change because the Reichsbank could not supply enough.

By 1920 it had become something else. The shortage was easing but the collector market was not, and a town could take real marks for paper it hoped would never be presented. So the municipalities commissioned Serienscheine: lithographed sets, printed far beyond any local need, illustrated with whatever the place was proud of - a legend, a famous son, a battle, a joke in dialect. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made by places with a few thousand inhabitants, in the years when Germany's currency was dying.

The two-Mark note makes the town's historical claim: an der Stätte, wo Carl der Große im Jahre 784 das Weihnachtsfest feierte - on the spot where Charlemagne kept Christmas in the year 784. The reverse shows St. Kilian's church, built in 1150, standing on that ground.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 2 Mark, Stadt Lügde, 1921 in the collection.

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