500 000 Mark overstamp on 500 Mark

Fallingbostel's district committee resorted to the simplest possible solution to the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923: rubber-stamping an enormous denomination directly onto existing 500 Mark notes rather than commissioning new paper. The underlying Jänecke-printed stock was already in administrative use, which made the overprint logistically trivial — the same printer had supplied the base notes, so the district had the material on hand.

This kind of notgeld overprint reflects how rapidly German municipal and district authorities lost faith in the Reichsbank's ability to supply adequate currency. By mid-1923, a note's face value could become obsolete within days of printing.