Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Castrop (City of Castrop) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 000 000 Mark (500 000 000) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Notgeld der Stadt Castrop. 500 Millionen Mark zahlen die städtischen Kassen der Stadt Castrop dem Einlieferer dieses Scheines. Castrop, den 15. Oktober 1923. Der Magistrat: Für die Einlösung haftet die Stadt Castrop mit ihrem Vermögen und mit ihrer Steuerkraft. Dieser Schein verliert nach Aufruf in der Castroper Zeitung seine Gültigkeit. (Translation: Token money of the city of Castrop. 500 Million marks pay the municipal coffers of the city of Castrop the consignor of this bill. Castrop, October 15th, 1923. The magistrate: The city of Castrop is liable for the redemption with its assets and with its tax power. This certificate loses its validity after being called up in the newspaper of Castrop.) |
| Reverse description | The reverse shows the obverse design printed in light grey through the thin paper stock, appearing as a faint mirror image of the obverse text and floral underprint with no independently printed reverse design, consistent with single-sided typographic emergency currency production of the 1923 German hyperinflation period. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Castrop was an industrial Ruhr coal town, and like dozens of similar municipalities in 1923, it was authorized to issue its own emergency currency — Notgeld — when hyperinflation made Reichsbank supply chronically inadequate. By the time this 500-million-mark note was printed, the denomination was already functionally modest; the Papiermark had deteriorated so badly that a single US dollar was worth hundreds of millions by late summer 1923.
Local printing on locally sourced paper was the norm at this scale of issue, which means paper quality and ink registration vary considerably between sheets — not a defect, just the reality of municipal emergency production.