1 000 000 Mark Städtische Sparkasse

Dülken's municipal savings bank issued this million-mark note at the absolute peak of Weimar hyperinflation, when German cities and towns were authorized — effectively compelled — to print their own emergency currency (Notgeld) because the Reichsbank simply could not produce legal tender fast enough to meet daily wage demands. M. Schmitz was a local printer, not a security printing house, which is why the only anti-counterfeiting measure is a dry stamp rather than watermarked stock or intaglio work. At a million marks, this note was already nearly worthless by the time the ink dried.