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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Pirmasens (Bürgermeisteramt Pirmasens) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Stadtgemeinde Pirmasens. Fünfhunderttausend Mark Reihe V No [serial number] Pirmasens, 14. Sept. 1923 Der Zeitpunkt der Einlösung wird öffentlich bekannt gemacht. Bürgermeisteramt Pirmasens |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on cream paper within a simple scrollwork letterpress border, the reverse carries the heading 'Gutschein über' in large script at the top. The denomination '500,000 Mark' appears in bold type at both left and right, flanked by small ornamental vignettes, with 'Fünfhunderttausend Mark' repeated in large Gothic blackletter along the lower edge. A central anti-counterfeiting warning text occupies the middle field. |
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| Comments |
Pirmasens was a shoe-manufacturing town in the Rhineland-Palatinate, and by mid-1923 it was printing its own emergency currency like hundreds of other German municipalities scrambling to keep wages moving faster than the hyperinflationary collapse. The Bürgermeisteramt — the mayor's office, not a bank — acted as issuing authority, which was entirely legal under the emergency framework Weimar authorities had effectively stopped controlling.
The 500,000 Mark denomination places this note in the summer of 1923 acceleration, before the October–November peak when denominations jumped into the billions and trillions. Notgeld at this level was often redeemed within days of issue, its purchasing power already eroded by the time workers spent it.