5 000 000 Mark Kreis Mayen

Kreis Mayen, a rural district in the Rhineland centered on the old volcanic-stone town of Mayen, issued this note during the hyperinflation peak of 1923 — the period when Reichsbank supply collapsed entirely and thousands of German municipal and district authorities were legally printing their own emergency currency (Notgeld) to pay workers and keep local commerce functional. At five million marks, this denomination reflects the frantic upward spiral of mid-1923, when that sum was still meaningful for a matter of weeks before further devaluation rendered it negligible.

The embossed seal is the authentication device of choice for a district authority without access to sophisticated intaglio equipment — a press stamp applied by a local official, not a security printer.