2 000 000 Mark Merck

E. Merck, the Darmstadt pharmaceutical and chemical company founded in 1668, issued this notgeld in 1923 as the Reichsmark's collapse forced even industrial firms to print their own emergency money for payroll. The 2,000,000 Mark denomination places it squarely in the middle phase of hyperinflation — before the truly absurd astronomical figures of late 1923, but already far beyond anything that would have seemed conceivable two years earlier.

The embossed seal is the critical authentication feature here; Merck's corporate stamp gave the note whatever credibility it carried among workers and local merchants who had little choice but to accept it.