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500 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtkasse Darmstadt (City Treasury of Darmstadt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green two-colour Notgeld note with a bold Fraktur-script vignette reading "Darmstadt-Mark" occupying the left two-thirds of the face, over a large numeral "500" rendered in guilloche-style letterpress. The right panel carries the payment text in italic script, a numeral "500" underprint within a decorative cartouche at upper right, the issue date "Darmstadt, den 1. October 1922", and the facsimile signature of the Oberbürgermeister beneath the title "Der Oberbürgermeister". The denomination "Fünfhundert Mark" is repeated in Gothic lettering along all four borders. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 500 Mark 500 |
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| Comments |
Darmstadt's city treasury issued this 500 Mark note during the period of accelerating German inflation in 1922, when municipal and corporate bodies across the Reich were producing Notgeld simply to keep enough currency in local circulation — the Reichsbank could not print fast enough to meet demand. By mid-1922, the 500 Mark denomination, once a substantial sum, was already losing purchasing power within weeks of issue.
Stadtkasse Darmstadt handled its own printing locally, which was common for Hessian municipalities of this size. The note's useful life was almost certainly measured in months before the next wave of inflation made the denomination functionally obsolete.