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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Bruchsal (City of Bruchsal) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 131 × 91 mm |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in dark brown on cream paper within an elaborate rococo scrollwork border incorporating foliate cartouches at each corner. The denomination '500000' appears in large stylized figures across the upper register, with the value in words 'FÜNFHUNDERTTAUSEND MARK' in bold type below; a central script cartouche carries the promise-to-pay text and issue date of 15 August 1923, flanked by a panel reading 'Nur mit Trockenstempel gültig' at left and an embossed dry-seal impression at right. The legend 'GUTSCHEIN DER STADT BRUCHSAL' is set in large display type below the cartouche, with validity clauses in script at the foot and the designer's credit 'K. Geitz' in the lower right corner. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Dry seal |
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| Comments |
Bruchsal's 500,000 Mark note was one of thousands of Notgeld issues flooding German commerce in mid-1923, when hyperinflation had accelerated so violently that municipal and private issuers were printing emergency denominations weekly simply to keep pace with the collapsing purchasing power of the Reichsmark. By the time notes in this range were circulating, the figure printed on them was already losing meaning before the ink dried.
Unusually, this note was printed locally by Heinrich Rudolf Schlüter A.G. — a Bruchsal firm — rather than outsourced to the major specialist presses in Berlin or Leipzig that were overwhelmed with Notgeld contracts that year. The dry seal was the city's primary anti-counterfeiting measure, modest by any standard, but counterfeiting high-denomination Notgeld was largely pointless given how rapidly even genuine notes depreciated.