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500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Der Magistrat der Stadt Dortmund (for the Stadt- und Landkreise Dortmund und Hörde) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 170 × 105 mm |
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| Obverse description | The left third of the note is occupied by a bold Expressionist-style vignette in warm earth tones, portraying a stylized male worker's face in close-up, with industrial smokestacks and factory buildings rendered in the background. To the right, the denomination "Fünfhundert Tausend Mark" is set in large blackletter (Fraktur) script against a grey guilloche underprint, followed by a payment obligation text in smaller Fraktur, the issue date of 16 Juli 1923, and the issuing authority inscription. A blind-embossed municipal seal of Dortmund appears centrally beneath the text, with two manuscript signatures and an alphanumeric serial number in the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is a triptych composition: flanking panels carry atmospheric lithographic vignettes of heavy industry — blast furnaces, pit-head winding gear, factory sheds and billowing smokestacks rendered in ochre and brown tones — while the wide central panel bears the large numeral "500 000" in bold outlined figures above the full title in Fraktur script. Below the title, two lines of smaller text cite the authorising Reichsminister der Finanzen decree and a validity clause, followed by a repeated pale numeral underprint and a central polychrome Prussian eagle vignette flanked by decorative ribbon scrolls. The printer's imprint appears at the foot of the note. |
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| Comments |
Dortmund's municipal administration issued this note under emergency currency provisions — the Notgeld system that fractured German money supply into thousands of locally authorized instruments during the hyperinflation of 1923. By the time 500,000-Mark denominations were circulating at the municipal level, the Reichsbank's own printing capacity had become inadequate, and regional printers like W. Crüwell absorbed the overflow.
The joint coverage of Stadt- und Landkreise Dortmund und Hörde reflects a practical administrative merger for currency purposes rather than any formal political reorganization. Hörde was not absorbed into Dortmund proper until 1928.