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500 000 000 000 Mark Reichsbanknote
| Issuer | Reichsbank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed on cream paper with a green underprint to the right, the obverse is set entirely in letterpress without pictorial vignettes, reflecting the emergency production standards of the hyperinflationary period. The denomination 'Fünfhundert Milliarden Mark' is rendered in large Gothic Fraktur script across the upper portion, beneath the heading 'Reichsbanknote' and the alphanumeric serial number. The central text block contains the payment obligation clause referencing the Reichsbankhauptkasse in Berlin, dated 26. Oktober 1923, and signed by the Reichsbankdirektorium, whose members' facsimile signatures appear in three rows flanked by two oval Reichsadler (imperial eagle) cachets; the numeral '500' is printed in large figures at the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Reichsbanknote Fünfhundert Milliarden Mark zahlt die Reichsbankhauptkasse in Berlin gegen diese Banknote dem Einlieferer. Vom 1. Februar 1924 ab kann diese Banknote aufgerufen und unter Umtausch gegen andere gesetzliche Zahlungsmittel eingezogen werden Berlin, den 26. Oktober 1923 Reichsbankdirektorium 500 |
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| Comments |
This is one of the terminal denominations of the Weimar hyperinflation — by the time the 500-Milliarden-Mark note entered circulation in late 1923, the printing schedule had become almost absurdly compressed. The Reichsdruckerei was running multiple shifts, and regional emergency printers (Notgelddruckereien) were contracted as overflow, which is why paper quality and ink consistency vary considerably across surviving examples of this series.
The stabilization came with the introduction of the Rentenmark on 15 November 1923 at a rate of one Rentenmark to one trillion (10¹²) old Mark — rendering this note worth precisely half a millionth of one new unit.