3 000 000 Mark Landesbank der Rheinprovinz

The Landesbank der Rheinprovinz was one of dozens of regional and municipal institutions forced into emergency note production during the hyperinflation spiral of 1923, when the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough currency to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. By the time denominations reached the millions, notes like this one had a useful circulation life measured in days — the value printed on them was often obsolete before the ink dried.

J. P. Bachem was a Cologne-based Catholic publishing house with commercial printing capacity, pressed into notgeld production out of geographic convenience. Not a specialist security printer.