3 000 000 Mark Hohenlimburg; Hoesch

Hoesch was one of the Ruhr's dominant steel producers, and like most heavy industrial firms in 1923, it was issuing its own emergency currency — Notgeld — simply to meet payroll. The Reichsbank could not print fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation, so companies of sufficient local weight were effectively licensed to fill the gap with their own scrip, redeemable at the issuing plant's cashier.

The Limburger Fabrik- und Hüttenverein was Hoesch's Hohenlimburg operation, a separate administrative division tied to the region's long tradition of cold-rolling and finishing work. Three million marks, a staggering sum eighteen months earlier, was by mid-1923 roughly the cost of a streetcar ride.