500 Mark overstamp on 5 Mark district issue

Lörrach's district committee issued this note during the acceleration phase of German hyperinflation, when municipal and district authorities across the Reich were authorized — or simply took it upon themselves — to produce emergency currency (Notgeld) to fill the void left by the Reichsbank's inability to supply adequate denominations fast enough. The 500 Mark overstamp on an existing 5 Mark substrate is a direct physical record of that collapse: a note printed at one value, rendered nearly worthless within months, then mechanically restruck at a hundred times its face.

Such overstamped district issues from Baden are among the more straightforward of the period's emergency measures. The overstamp itself — rather than a fresh printing — was a practical shortcut that kept notes in circulation without commissioning entirely new stock.