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5 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Sobernheim (City of Sobernheim) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Pink and cream Notgeld issued on plain paper. At left, a vertical panel carries the denomination numeral '5.000.000' alongside a letterpress vignette of the Sobernheim municipal coat of arms with heraldic eagles. The main field bears a central lobed guilloche underprint over which the denomination in large Gothic script and issuing text are printed, with a circular mayor's official stamp at lower centre and a manuscript signature at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 5.000 000 MARK (Translation: 5,000,000 Marks) |
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| Comments |
Sobernheim was a small town in the Nahe valley, and its municipal administration — like hundreds of comparable German localities — resorted to printing its own emergency currency when Reichsbank notes became functionally worthless during the hyperinflation of 1923. By the time a five-million Mark denomination made sense, the Reichsmark was losing value within hours of issue. The printer, Fr. Melsbach, was a local Bad Sobernheim firm with no specialization in security printing — which is entirely typical of Notgeld at this inflationary extreme, where speed of production mattered far more than forgery resistance.
The note's relatively large physical format for a municipal issue suggests it was produced on whatever stock Melsbach had available in mid-1923.