Viersen's million-Mark note belongs to the Notgeld wave of mid-1923, when German municipal authorities were forced to print their own emergency currency simply to meet weekly payrolls as Reichsbank supply collapsed under hyperinflation. The Stadt Viersen — a mid-sized textile town in the Lower Rhine — was among hundreds of municipalities that contracted local or regional printers to produce denominations that would have been unimaginable twelve months earlier.
The watermarked paper distinguishes this issue from the cheaper emergency printings of smaller localities, suggesting Viersen sourced stock from an established paper supplier rather than improvising entirely.
Viersen's million-Mark note belongs to the Notgeld wave of mid-1923, when German municipal authorities were forced to print their own emergency currency simply to meet weekly payrolls as Reichsbank supply collapsed under hyperinflation. The Stadt Viersen — a mid-sized textile town in the Lower Rhine — was among hundreds of municipalities that contracted local or regional printers to produce denominations that would have been unimaginable twelve months earlier.
The watermarked paper distinguishes this issue from the cheaper emergency printings of smaller localities, suggesting Viersen sourced stock from an established paper supplier rather than improvising entirely.