500 Marka

Estonia's postwar monetary system was built almost from scratch after the collapse of the Russian Imperial ruble, and Eesti Pank turned to the American Bank Note Company during the early 1920s to produce notes of a quality the nascent republic could not yet manufacture domestically. The ABNC had been supplying governments worldwide with engraved currency since the mid-nineteenth century, and Estonia was one of several newly independent states that engaged them in this period.

The Estonian marka itself was already under pressure by the time these notes were entering circulation — chronic inflation eventually forced a currency reform in 1928, when the kroon replaced the marka at a rate of 100:1.