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1 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Sterkrade (City of Sterkrade) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 000 000 Marks (1 000 000) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld emergency issue printed in brown and blue on white paper, with a dense guilloche underprint filling the central field. The denomination "Eine Million Mark" is set in large Gothic blackletter type above the numeral 1.000.000, flanked by ornate lace-pattern borders. A vertical stub at left carries the value inscription, with issue date, issuing authority, and a manuscript signature of the Oberbürgermeister at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Stadt Sterkrade Eine Million 1.000.000 Stadt Sterkrade |
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| Comments |
Sterkrade was an independent industrial city in the Ruhr — home to Gutehoffnungshütte, one of Germany's largest iron and steel conglomerates — before being absorbed into the newly created city of Oberhausen in October 1929. Like hundreds of German municipalities during the hyperinflation of 1923, Sterkrade issued its own notgeld when Reichsbank currency became functionally worthless faster than it could be printed and distributed. A million marks was a practical denomination that summer, not an absurdity.
Municipal notgeld of this period was legally permissible but technically provisional — issuers were obligated to redeem it, an obligation that became meaningless as the inflation accelerated and the Rentenmark stabilization arrived in November 1923.