Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Wald (City of Wald) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Yes |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a large central guilloche-formed stylized "W" in light brown tones against a beige underprint, serving as the primary vignette for the municipality of Wald. The denomination "500 000" is repeated in each corner, while bold dark brown letterpress text reading "STADT", "MARK 500 000 MARK", and "WALD" frames the central motif vertically. The anti-counterfeiting warning "Nachahmung strafbar" and the printer's imprint "Walther Stadtgesellsch. Solingen." appear along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | 500 000 500 000 STADT MARK 500 000 MARK WALD 500 000 500 000 Nachahmung strafbar Walther Stadtgesellsch. Solingen. |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Stadt Wald was a small industrial municipality in the Bergisches Land that issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923. By the time 500,000-Mark denominations became necessary, the Reichsmark was losing value faster than notes could be printed and distributed. Local authorities across Germany stepped in because the Reichsbank simply could not supply currency in sufficient volume.
Walther Stadtgesellschaft, based in the neighboring city of Solingen, handled printing for several municipal issuers in the region. Wald itself was absorbed into Solingen in 1929, which makes its independent civic issues a brief window — the paper record of a municipality that no longer exists.