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3 000 000 Mark Kreis Alzey
| Issuer | Hessisches Kreisamt Alzey |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green letterpress notgeld on pale paper with guilloche border. At left, a circular seal of the Volksstaat Hessen bearing a crowned lion passant coat of arms; to the right, the denomination 'Drei Millionen Mark' in large Fraktur blackletter script with the issuing authority text above. A handwritten signature and red serial number appear at the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Green letterpress on pale paper with guilloche border. The central vignette is a panoramic cityscape of Alzey with church steeples and rooftops; two airships are visible above the skyline. Four heraldic shields occupy the corners, with a circular municipal seal of Obernheim at the lower centre. The denomination '3 000 000 Mark' appears in each of the four corner panels in bold Fraktur type. |
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| Comments |
Alzey is a small administrative district in Rheinhessen, and like hundreds of similar Kreise across Germany, it resorted to issuing its own emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923 when Reichsbank notes simply could not be printed fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. This note, denominated at three million Mark, would have been rendered nearly worthless within days — possibly hours — of issue, given the velocity of inflation that summer.
Notgeld at this denomination level is firmly in the Inflationsnotgeld category rather than the earlier municipal issues, which were produced mainly for novelty and collector trade. The practical urgency behind pieces like this one shows in the production values.