10 000 000 Mark Steinkohlenbergwerk Gewerkschaft Neumühl

Neumühl was one of the major collieries in the Hamborn district of the Ruhr, and this notgeld was issued during the hyperinflation peak of 1923 — a period when German industrial enterprises, municipalities, and even private firms printed their own emergency currency because Reichsbank notes were depreciating faster than the presses could run. By mid-1923, ten million marks was barely enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Coal companies in the Ruhr occupied a peculiar position that year: the French and Belgian occupation of the region from January 1923 had paralyzed normal economic activity, and firms like Neumühl were simultaneously managing workforce payrolls, occupation-era restrictions, and a currency in freefall.