500 000 Mark

Recklinghausen and neighboring Buer were in the thick of the Ruhr occupation crisis when this note was struck — French and Belgian troops had moved into the industrial region in January 1923 to enforce reparations deliveries, and the German government's policy of passive resistance had effectively paralyzed the regional economy. The Reichsbank could not keep pace with hyperinflation's acceleration, so local administrations — the Landkreis alongside the two municipalities — pooled authority to issue notgeld at denominations that would have been unthinkable even twelve months earlier.

The joint issuing arrangement between a rural district and two separate town administrations was administratively unusual and reflects genuine improvisation under pressure.