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5 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Pirmasens (City of Pirmasens) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Brown letterpress Notgeld voucher (Gutschein) on cream paper, enclosed within a decorative floral and foliate border of repeating leaf motifs. The denomination "Fünf Millionen Mark" is rendered in large blackletter (Fraktur) script at centre, with a pink-stamped serial number in the upper right and the series designation "Reihe Z" to the upper left. A light underprint reading "STADTGEMEINDE PIRMASENS" runs horizontally across the upper and lower interior fields, and the issuing authority "Das Bürgermeisteramt" appears in bold blackletter at lower right above the date "Pirmasens, den 17. September 1923." |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein Reihe Z Fünf Millionen Mark Pirmasens, den 17. September 1923. Das Bürgermeisteramt. STADTGEMEINDE PIRMASENS |
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| Comments |
Pirmasens was the center of Germany's shoe manufacturing industry, and its municipal emergency money during the hyperinflation of 1923 reflects the desperation of that period with unusual clarity. By August 1923, the Reichsmark was collapsing so fast that local authorities — cities, towns, even private firms — were legally permitted to issue their own Notgeld to keep commerce moving when official currency simply couldn't be printed fast enough to match price increases.
A five-million mark note from a shoe-town municipality is mundane in one sense; dozens of German cities issued denominations at this scale that summer. What makes Pirmasens issues worth noting is how rapidly even these notes became inadequate — within weeks of printing, five million marks wouldn't cover a loaf of bread.