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1 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Cities of Bottrop, Gladbeck, and Osterfeld (Prussian province of Westphalia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 159.5 × 96.1 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on a red-orange snowflake crystal underprint; the denomination and issuing authority are set out in multiple lines of Gothic script across the face. A green serial number appears in the upper right corner, flanking the principal text block. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The joint issuance by Bottrop, Gladbeck, and Osterfeld reflects a peculiarity of the German hyperinflation emergency — the Notgeld system allowed municipalities, companies, and local authorities to print their own currency when Reichsbank supply couldn't keep pace with denomination demand. By mid-1923, the million-mark threshold had become routine; this note would have been functionally obsolete within weeks of printing, outpaced by inflation running at rates that made yesterday's denominations tomorrow's small change.
The three towns sit in the northern Ruhr industrial belt, an area under French and Belgian military occupation from January 1923 following Germany's default on reparations timber deliveries. That occupation directly strangled local economies and accelerated the collapse that made notes like this necessary.