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 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Essen (City of Essen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Brown-toned Notgeld note printed on plain paper with a geometric guilloche underprint composed of interlocking diamond and starburst motifs in brown. The issuing authority "Notgeld der Stadt Essen" is set in Gothic blackletter script at the top, above the large denomination inscription "Fünfhundert Mark" in bold Fraktur type. Below, a multi-line text in Gothic script details the redemption conditions, authorization by the Reichsfinanzminister dated 16 September 1922, the serial number at lower left, and a manuscript signature of the Oberbürgermeister at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | NOTGELD 500 DER STADT ESSEN |
| 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 |
Essen's 1922 Notgeld issue was a direct response to the hyperinflationary spiral that had rendered Reichsbank supply chains unable to keep denominations current with prices. Municipal authorities across Germany were legally permitted — and effectively compelled — to print emergency money to meet payroll and local commerce. Essen, as the industrial heart of the Ruhr, had a particular urgency: the Krupp works alone employed tens of thousands who needed wages in physical notes.
The 500 Mark denomination was already anachronistic almost from the moment of printing — by late 1922, weekly wage requirements had blown past it entirely.