100 000 Mark Phoenix Aktien-Gesellschaft für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb

Phoenix AG was one of the Ruhr's major integrated steel and mining combines, headquartered in Hörde (later absorbed into Dortmund). Like hundreds of German industrial firms in the summer and autumn of 1923, it issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — to meet payroll obligations when the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough banknotes fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. By the time denominations reached 100,000 Mark, that figure represented roughly an hour's wages.

L. Schwann was a well-established Düsseldorf commercial printer with deep roots in the Rhineland trade, a natural choice for a firm with operations concentrated in the industrial west.