1000 Mark

Uetersen is a small town on the Pinnau river in Schleswig-Holstein, and this 1922 emergency issue belongs to the vast wave of German municipal Notgeld that flooded the country as Reichsbank notes failed to keep pace with accelerating inflation. By mid-1922, the Reichsmark was losing value fast enough that towns, companies, and even individual businesses were authorized — or simply took it upon themselves — to print supplementary currency. Four countersignatures on a municipal note of this denomination is unusual and likely reflects a local requirement for multiple civic officers to authenticate each issuance, reducing the risk of unauthorized overprinting.