500 Mark Hannoversche Maschinenbau-AG, overprint on 5 Mark

Hannoversche Maschinenbau-AG — better known as HANOMAG — was a major industrial concern producing locomotives and heavy machinery, not a financial institution. Like hundreds of German manufacturers during the hyperinflationary spiral of 1922, it was forced to issue its own emergency currency simply to meet weekly payroll, as Reichsbank notes became scarce faster than they could be printed.

This note is an overprint on existing 5 Mark stock — the base note repurposed and restamped to circulate at 500 Mark, a ratio that illustrates how rapidly purchasing power was collapsing by mid-1922. Factory-issued notgeld of this type was redeemable only within a narrow local or corporate ecosystem, and most was returned and destroyed once the issuer settled accounts.