500 Marka

Estonia's first independent currency issues were produced under severe constraints — the newly declared republic had no established central bank and no domestic printing infrastructure capable of handling banknote production in 1919. The marka was pegged nominally to the Finnish markka, though in practice wartime inflation made any fixed relationship largely theoretical. Soviet forces were still fighting in eastern Estonia when these notes entered circulation.

P#18 is among the higher denominations of the earliest Treasury series, issued by the state directly rather than through a banking institution. The series was superseded when the Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank) took over currency issuance in 1920, giving the entire Treasury marka run an unusually short active life.