10 000 000 Mark

Der Landkreis Essen was a rural administrative district surrounding the city of Essen proper — a legally distinct entity from the Stadtkreis Essen, which issued its own emergency currency simultaneously. This note is Notgeld in its most extreme form: by the time 10,000,000-Mark denominations were being printed in mid-1923, the Reichsbank's own printing facilities could not keep pace with demand, and local authorities across the Rhineland were authorized — effectively compelled — to supply their own circulating medium.

The Ruhr occupation by French and Belgian troops, which had begun in January 1923, severely disrupted normal financial channels throughout the region, accelerating the collapse that made these denominations necessary within months of their issue.