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| Issuer | Amt Königssteele (Municipality of Königssteele) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 000 000 Mark (1 000 000) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein des Amtes Königssteele Bei Vorzeigung zahlt die Amtssparkasse oder die Amtskasse Königssteele gegen diesen Gutschein Eine Million Mark in Kassenscheinen KÖNIGSSTEELE, den 12. August 1923 Amtmann Beigeordneter Gemeindevorsteher i.V. Dieser Gutschein verliert seine Gültigkeit innerhalb eines Monats nach erfolgter Aufforderung zur Einlösung 1000000 |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in a single shade of sage green, with an intricate guilloche field filling the central area. A large ornate cartouche at centre contains the numeral "1000000" in bold white relief, flanked by symmetrical acanthus scroll and foliate vignette work above and below. The whole is surrounded by a multi-line engine-turned border with scroll corner ornaments. |
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| Comments |
Königssteele was a small industrial municipality in the Ruhr, absorbed into the city of Essen in 1929. Like hundreds of German communes in 1923, it issued its own notgeld not out of monetary ambition but sheer necessity — the Reichsbank could not print fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation that was doubling prices every few days by mid-year. Municipal and corporate issuers filled the gap, often with whatever printing resources were locally available.
At one million marks, this note was already obsolete within weeks of issue. By November 1923 the exchange rate hit 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar.