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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Bezirksverband der Amtshauptmannschaft Annaberg |
|---|---|
| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Green diamond-pattern guilloche underprint covers the entire note. The denomination 'Fünfhunderttausend Mark' is rendered in large Gothic blackletter script across the upper centre, above the numeral '500000' in bold typeset figures. To the lower right, a circular official seal of the Amtshauptmannschaft Annaberg is applied, with a manuscript signature immediately to its left; a counterfeiting warning in small text occupies the lower left margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The entire reverse is occupied by a wide-format panoramic vignette in blue, reproducing a historical bird's-eye view of the town of Annaberg set within a hilly Erzgebirge landscape, with the prominent church tower and rooftops visible at centre-right. The engraving is rendered in fine line work consistent with a reproduction of an early modern woodcut or copperplate townscape. The town name 'Annaberg' appears in Gothic script at the top centre above the vignette. |
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| Comments |
Annaberg, a silver-mining town in the Erzgebirge, issued its own emergency currency during the hyperinflation peak of 1923 — a period when municipal and district authorities across Germany were printing notgeld simply to meet payroll, since Reichsbank notes were losing value faster than they could be transported and distributed. The Bezirksverband der Amtshauptmannschaft Annaberg was the administrative district body, not a bank, which underlines how thoroughly the monetary system had broken down by mid-1923.
G. Bald Wittig was a local Annaberg printer pressed into currency production alongside dozens of similar regional firms that year. The 500,000 Mark denomination, enormous by any prior standard, was already inadequate within weeks of issue.