500 Mark

Hagen issued an enormous volume of notgeld in 1922 as hyperinflation outpaced the Reichsbank's ability to supply denominations large enough for ordinary transactions. The Stadt- und Landkreise — the combined urban and rural district authority — issued jointly rather than separately, an administrative arrangement that was unusual enough to warrant the combined credit line on the note itself.

W. Girardet was a Hagen-based printing firm, so the production stayed entirely local. Poetter's design work was typical of the better municipal commissions of the period — competent, regionally inflected work rather than the rushed anonymous output many smaller issuers settled for.

By late 1922, 500 Mark was already losing relevance as a meaningful denomination within weeks of printing.