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1 000 000 Mark

Issuer Stadt Weinheim (City of Weinheim)
Year 1923
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Value 1 000 000 000 Mark (1 000 000 000)
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Obverse description The obverse is divided into two vertical panels by a ruled border, all framed within a sawtooth outer border. The left panel carries the denomination numeral '1 000 000 M.' at top, a bold woodcut-style vignette of the Weinheim municipal coat of arms — a quartered shield with Bavarian lozenges and a lion — and a manuscript serial number below the label 'No'. The right panel presents the denomination in Gothic Fraktur script ('Eine Million Mark') above the numeral '1 000 000', followed by the issuing authority text and a circular red municipal stamp; a handwritten authorization signature appears to the right of the legend 'Der Gemeinderat: J.B.'. A cautionary line reads 'Ohne Gemeindeesiegel ungültig' along the bottom margin.
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Reverse lettering Stadtkasse Verrechnung * Weinheim, Bad. *
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Comments

Weinheim's million-Mark note dates from the summer of 1923, when Germany's hyperinflation was accelerating fast enough that municipal authorities — not just central institutions — were legally authorized to issue emergency currency, Notgeld, to keep local commerce functioning. By August of that year, a single US dollar was worth millions of Marks; by November, billions. A denomination that sounds extraordinary today was, at the time of issue, barely sufficient for routine transactions.

The official stamp is the primary security device — typical for small-municipality Notgeld, where elaborate intaglio printing was neither affordable nor available.

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