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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Oberhausen (City of Oberhausen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in black letterpress within a geometric border of concentric arc guilloche panels at each corner. A central rectangular vignette contains a detailed line-engraved industrial scene showing a coal mine headframe with winding tower, a tall smokestack, and ancillary industrial structures emitting billowing smoke, evoking the heavy industrial character of the Ruhr region. The denomination "500 000 MARK 500 000" is inscribed across the top in bold blackletter, and the Oberhausen municipal coat of arms appears as a green underprint in the left and right lateral panels. |
| Reverse lettering | 500 000 MARK 500 000 |
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| Comments |
Oberhausen's half-million mark note belongs to the catastrophic hyperinflation peak of 1923, when German municipal authorities — Städte, Kreise, Gemeinden — were legally permitted to issue their own emergency currency, Notgeld, to compensate for the Reich's failure to keep denominations in step with prices. By mid-1923, 500,000 marks was barely enough for a loaf of bread, and notes like this were often obsolete within days of printing.
The watermarked paper was almost certainly sourced from a commercial supplier rather than a security printer, a common improvisation among smaller Ruhr cities scrambling to meet demand. Oberhausen sat at the industrial heart of the Ruhr, occupied by French and Belgian troops from January 1923 onward — a fact that complicated both the local economy and the logistics of emergency currency production considerably.