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5 000 000 Mark Bayerische Staatsbank
| Issuer | Bayerische Staatsbank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 188 × 103 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark green, red-pink, and olive tones on a cream ground, with a dense guilloche border framing the entire note. The issuer title 'Bayerische Staatsbank' appears in Gothic script within a dark green header band at the top, while a large underprint reading '5 MILLIONEN' runs across the centre field. The denomination 'Fünf Millionen Mark' is set in bold Gothic letterpress in the middle, flanked by a decorative vignette panel at the right bearing the numeral '5' and 'Millionen Mark' in an ornate cartouche; date, serial prefix, and Direktorium signatures appear in the lower portion. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Watermark visible in the paper; the text 'BAYERISCHE STAATSBANK' also appears as a letterpress underprint on both faces. |
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| Comments |
The Bayerische Staatsbank was one of several German regional institutions forced to issue emergency high-denomination notes during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923. Bavaria maintained its own state banking apparatus separate from the Reichsbank, and the Staatsbank exercised that authority aggressively in the summer and autumn of that year as the mark shed value by the hour. The 5,000,000 Mark denomination, unthinkable two years earlier, had become effectively small change by October 1923, when the exchange rate briefly exceeded 10 billion marks to the dollar.
The watermark — relatively costly to implement during crisis printing — suggests this note was not pure Notgeld but an instrument the Staatsbank intended to treat with some institutional seriousness.