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500 Mark - Westfalen Freiherr vom Stein
| Issuer | Province of Westphalia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bare-headed right-facing bust of Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom Stein, the Prussian statesman and reformer, occupies the central field in bold relief, rendered in a neoclassical style with naturalistic hair detail. A continuous circular legend in Fraktur blackletter script surrounds the effigy, identifying the subject and commemorating his role in German history. His birth and death years, 1757 and 1831, are incorporated into the legend at the left of the bust. |
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| Reverse lettering | Minister vom Stein•Deutschlands Führer in schwerer Zeit 1757-1831 |
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| Additional information |
Issued by the Province of Westphalia during the early stages of Germany's catastrophic inflation spiral, this piece belongs to the Notgeld emergency currency wave that saw hundreds of German municipalities and regional bodies striking their own coinage between 1918 and 1923 as the Reichsmark collapsed. Westphalia invoked Freiherr vom Stein — the Prussian reformer who dismantled serfdom and reorganized the Prussian state after Napoleonic defeat — as a figure of regional pride and institutional resilience at a moment when German civic identity was under serious strain.
Tombac, a brass alloy with high copper content, was the material of pragmatic necessity rather than preference. By late 1922, a 500 Mark denomination was already losing purchasing power faster than the coins could reach circulation.