50 000 Mark, 1922

This copy

Accession

OM-00189

Serial

E 03040678

Series year

1922

Actually issued

1922

Signatures

This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.

Grade

F (IBNS)

Moderate wear. Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.

Estimated value

$4 indicative

Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.

Dimensions

192.3 × 110.4 mm (±0.8, from the scan)

Themes

HyperinflationWeimar Republic

The type

Type

50 000 Mark, 1922

Printer

Not established

Rarity

common

Inscriptions

Reverse — the counterfeiting penalty

Wer Banknoten nachmacht oder verfälscht, oder nachgemachte oder verfälschte sich verschafft und in Verkehr bringt, wird mit Gefängnis nicht unter zwei Jahren bestraft.

Whoever counterfeits or falsifies banknotes, or obtains and circulates counterfeit or falsified ones, is punished with not less than two years' imprisonment.

Symbology

Reichsadler

The German eagle. On the 1929 series it is the Weimar republic's; from 1939 it stands on a wreathed swastika, and the same currency financed rearmament and then the war.

What was happening

Germany paid for the war by borrowing against victory, then for the peace with reparations. By 1922 the Reichsbank was discounting government paper without limit; by November 1923 a US dollar cost 4.2 trillion marks. This note belongs to the climb: a denomination that was a fortune when the plate was cut and a tram fare by the time the ink dried.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 000 Mark, 1922 in the collection.