Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 000 000 Mark Kreis Wetzlar
| Issuer | Kreiskommunalkasse des Kreises Wetzlar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Text-only letterpress design in which the Kreiskommunalkasse des Kreises Wetzlar declares payment of Eine Million Mark to the bearer, dated Wetzlar, 23 August 1923. The text includes a notice that the redemption date will be publicly announced, followed by the printed designations of the chairman and members of the Kreisausschuss. The printer's imprint of Scharfes Druckereien, Wetzlar appears at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A pen-and-ink style vignette in sepia tones occupies the entire face of the note, presenting a landscape view of the ruins of Greifenstein castle perched on a rocky hillside, flanked by trees and shrubland. The medieval fortification is rendered with two surviving towers and partially collapsed curtain walls, conveying a Romantic aesthetic typical of German Notgeld imagery. The caption "Ruine Greifenstein" is lettered in the upper right corner. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Wetzlar was one of hundreds of German administrative districts empowered to issue their own emergency currency during the hyperinflation crisis of 1923, when the Reichsmark's collapse outpaced the central government's ability to supply physical notes. The Kreiskommunalkasse — the district's municipal treasury — rather than the town itself, was the formal issuing authority, a distinction that mattered legally if redemption was ever demanded.
By mid-1923, a one-million mark denomination was already inadequate for daily transactions within weeks of printing. Scharfes Druckereien, a local press, produced the note in Wetzlar — a straightforward domestic job with no outside contractor involved.