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5 000 000 Mark Birkenfelder Landesbank
| Issuer | Bank für das Nahethal A.G. (Birkenfelder Landesbank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 164 × 86 mm |
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| Obverse description | Printed on firm, smooth white paper in dark red ink throughout. The denomination '5 000 000 Mark' is set in large Gothic typeface, with the amount in words 'FÜNF MILLIONEN' below. A five-digit serial number and control designation appear in black, with an autograph signature in blue-green ink (Wagner) at lower right. A horizontal oval dry seal is impressed at lower left. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | No watermark; no additional security features identified. |
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| Comments |
The Bank für das Nahethal A.G. operated as a regional commercial bank serving the Nahe valley district, and its emergency currency issues from 1923 sit squarely within the Weimar hyperinflation's provincial notgeld phase — when local institutions were legally authorized to issue their own denominations to fill the void left by a central banking system that simply could not print fast enough. By the time five-million-mark notes were being issued, that figure bought less than a loaf of bread.
Birkenfeld itself was an unusual administrative situation in this period — the town was the capital of the Free State of Oldenburg's exclave of Birkenfeld, geographically separated from the main Oldenburg territory and surrounded by Prussian land. That isolation made local banking institutions more central to daily commerce than they might otherwise have been.