500 000 Mark Kreis Wipperfürth

Kreis Wipperfürth was a rural district in the Bergisches Land region of the Rhineland, and its emergency currency from the hyperinflation of 1923 was printed, like much of the provincial notgeld from that period, by commercial printers in nearby Cologne rather than by any specialist banknote firm. Heiss & Co. handled a significant volume of this kind of work during the crisis months — the economics were brutal: denominations became obsolete faster than the ink dried, and printers operated on tight turnaround schedules.

At 500,000 Mark, this note belongs to the mid-tier of the runaway summer denominations, before the autumn collapse pushed issuers into the billions.