500 Kroner 'Plovmand' Heilmann type II

Heilmann's second design for this denomination — distinguishable from the earlier type by revised lettering and minor compositional adjustments — entered circulation during a period of severe monetary stress. Denmark had suspended the gold standard in 1914, returned to it at the prewar parity in 1927 after considerable deflationary pain, then abandoned it again for good in 1931, the same year this type was issued. The timing was not coincidental; the currency framework that gave high-denomination notes their credibility was collapsing across Europe simultaneously.

The "Plovmand" nickname — plowman — comes from the agricultural figure in the vignette, a rare instance of a working-class rural image on a high-value Danish note of the period.