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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Bamberg (City of Bamberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 000 Mark (500 000) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Black print on plain paper centres a vignette of Bamberg Cathedral, flanked on either side by vertical banners each bearing the note value in figures. Below the cathedral vignette, a rhymed German verse in letterpress laments the hardships of hyperinflation and invokes the intercession of the city's patron saints, Heinrich and Kunigunde. |
| Reverse lettering | 500000 Mark Ein Pfund Butter eine Million, Ein Pfund Fleisch eine halbe schon, Zweihunderttausend Mark ein Liter Bier, Zehntausend Mark ein "Weckla" hier. Schwer ist zu beschaffen das tägliche Brot, Dies Geld zeugte Teuerung und Not St. Heinrich, St. Kunigund stets hilfsbereit Schützt Bamberg in dieser schweren Zeit! J.N. (Translation: 500,000 Marks. A pound of butter — one million, a pound of meat — half a million already, two hundred thousand marks a litre of beer, ten thousand marks a bread roll here. Hard it is to procure our daily bread; this money bred inflation and hardship. Saint Heinrich, Saint Kunigunde, ever ready to help, protect Bamberg in this difficult time!) |
| 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 |
Bamberg's municipal administration, like hundreds of German cities in 1923, was forced into emergency currency production as hyperinflation outpaced the Reichsbank's ability to supply usable denominations. By mid-1923, a 500,000 Mark note represented roughly the cost of a loaf of bread — briefly, and not for long. These Notgeld issues were legal under emergency ordinances but carried no federal guarantee, and their acceptance often depended entirely on local trust in the issuing municipality.
Bamberg printed its own issues in-house, which accounts for the relatively modest production quality seen across the series.