500 Mark

The Amtshauptmannschaft Bautzen — the district administrative authority centered on the Upper Lusatian city of Bautzen — issued this note during the acute inflation emergency of 1922, when municipal and district bodies across Germany were authorized to issue Notgeld to compensate for the chronic shortage of Reichsbank currency in circulation. Stengel & Co. in Dresden were primarily known as a fine art and photographic postcard publisher, which made them an unusual but not unprecedented choice for emergency currency work during this period.