500 000 Mark

Crefeld's 500,000 Mark note dates from the summer of 1923, when Weimar hyperinflation was accelerating so fast that municipal authorities across the Rhine Province could no longer wait for Reichsbank supply. Stadt Crefeld — the textile manufacturing center known internationally for its silk trade — issued its own emergency currency, or Notgeld, as a purely practical stopgap. The printer Worms & Lüthgen was a local firm, which kept production fast and under municipal control.

By the time 500,000 Mark denominations were necessary, the note's face value was already eroding within days of printing. Dr. Johansen's signature authenticated the obligation, though the city itself would be made whole when the Rentenmark stabilization in November 1923 rendered all such issues void.