1 000 000 Mark Ostelbisches Braunkohlensyndikat

The Ostelbisches Braunkohlensyndikat — the East Elbian Brown Coal Syndicate — was one of the regional industrial associations that resorted to emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsmark's collapse made it impossible to pay workers in legal tender fast enough to retain any value. Notgeld issued by coal syndicates and mining concerns was common in the lignite-rich regions east of the Elbe, where large workforces required weekly, sometimes daily, payroll disbursements.

The million-mark denomination places this squarely in mid-1923, before the truly astronomical figures of the autumn rendered even this sum nearly worthless within days of printing.