5 000 000 Mark

Landkreis Essen was one of hundreds of German municipal and district authorities that issued Notgeld during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. By the time notes of this magnitude were being printed, five million marks would buy little more than a loaf of bread — and within weeks, even that had changed.

District-level issues like this one were typically printed locally on short notice, which accounts for the variable paper quality and inconsistent ink coverage common across the series. The authorization to issue came from emergency provisions, not any formal banking charter.