2 000 000 Mark Birkenfelder Landesbank

The Bank für das Nahetal was a regional Rhineland institution that found itself issuing emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923, when the Reichsmark was losing value so rapidly that local banks, municipalities, and even private firms were authorized to print their own circulating notes to meet basic payroll and commerce demands. By the time denominations in the millions became necessary, the entire exercise had become an exercise in keeping pace with a printing press that could never run fast enough.

The dry stamp serves as the primary authentication device — a telling economy of means for a note that itself represented an economy in freefall. Birkenfeld, a small administrative seat in what was then disputed occupied territory, was an unlikely origin for circulating paper of this magnitude.