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500 000 000 Mark Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia
| Issuer | Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on a pale salmon-orange guilloche underprint, enclosed within an ornate typographic border with large numeral '500' repeated vertically at each corner alongside the legend 'MILLIONEN'. The central text area carries the denomination 'Fünfhundert Millionen Mark' in bold Gothic blackletter script, above which a cursive issuer promise reads 'Die Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia in Herne zahlt gegen diesen Gutschein'. A redemption clause in smaller Gothic type occupies the centre-right, with the place and date 'Herne, September 1923' at lower left, series letter 'D' in red at mid-left, and the issuer's name 'Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia' with a manuscript signature at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted and plain, showing only the blank cream-white paper stock with show-through of the obverse impression visible through the sheet, consistent with the lightweight emergency currency paper typical of German Inflation-era Notgeld issues. |
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| Comments |
Hibernia was one of the Ruhr's dominant coal-mining companies, and like dozens of major industrial firms during the hyperinflation of 1923, it was authorized to issue its own emergency currency — Notgeld — to pay its workforce when Reichsbank notes couldn't keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. This note, denominated at 500 million Mark, was issued at a moment when that sum bought roughly what a few pfennigs had purchased four years earlier.
Printed in Herne, where Hibernia maintained its administrative headquarters, the note reflects the industrial Notgeld practice of issuing currency backed by company credit rather than state authority — a stopgap that dissolved almost as quickly as the inflation it was created to address.