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1 000 000 Marks
| Issuer | Stadt Saalfeld (Saale) — Stadthauptkasse |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed Notgeld on cream paper with a pale geometric guilloche underprint across the main panel. The central text block within a double-rule border carries the issuing authority title and the denomination "EINE MILLION MARK" in bold display type, with the date "18. August 1923" and a validity clause referencing the Saalfelder Tageszeitungen. To the right, a broad orange vertical band carries the numeral "1000000" at top and bottom, flanking the city arms vignette — a shield bearing two confronted fish — rendered in dark ink on the orange ground. At lower centre of the main panel, a smaller version of the same heraldic shield is printed in black, and two manuscript signatures appear below the designations "Der Stadtgemeindevorsteher" and "Der Gemeinderat". Series designation "SERIE II" and a serial number with asterisk appear in orange at upper left and centre respectively. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | SERIE II Notgeld der Stadt Saalfeld (Saale) Die Stadthauptkasse zahlt dem Einlieferer dieses Gutscheins EINE MILLION MARK Dieser Gutschein verliert seine Gültigkeit nach Aufruf in den Saalfelder Tageszeitungen Saalfeld (Saale), den 18. August 1923 Der Stadtgemeindevorsteher: Der Gemeinderat: 1000000 Wiedemannsche Druckerei ArG, Saalfeld a.S |
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| Comments |
Saalfeld am Saale was among hundreds of German municipalities forced to print their own emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923, as the Reichsbank's output could not keep pace with the collapsing purchasing power of the mark. The Stadthauptkasse — the municipal treasury — was the issuing authority, a civic body with no normal business issuing banknotes, doing so purely out of administrative necessity.
Wiedemannsche Druckerei AG was a local press, not a specialist security printer, and it shows in the modest production values typical of provincial Notgeld at this denomination level. By the time million-mark notes were circulating, the figure had become almost absurd — this denomination would be superseded by exponentially larger ones within weeks of issue.