1 000 000 Mark Landesbank der Rheinprovinz

The Landesbank der Rheinprovinz was one of dozens of regional and municipal institutions that issued emergency currency — Notgeld — during the catastrophic hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsmark's collapse forced local authorities to produce their own denominations simply to make payroll. By the time million-mark notes entered circulation that summer, the denomination was already losing practical value within days of printing. Bachem's Cologne press was printing for multiple issuers simultaneously, working under severe paper and ink supply pressure.

The guilloche security printing is almost ironic at this denomination — anti-counterfeiting measures on a note rendered worthless by inflation faster than forgers could have acted.