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5 000 000 Mark Reichsbahndirektion
| Issuer | Deutsche Reichsbahn, Direktionsbezirk Erfurt |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | Issued on cream-toned paper, the obverse is set in a typographic letterpress layout with three vertical guilloche underprint bands in blue-grey running the full height of the note, each bearing the numeral '5000000' in large figures. The heading 'Deutsche Reichsbahn – Direktionsbezirk Erfurt' appears in Gothic Fraktur script at the top, above the large denomination legend 'Fünf Millionen Mark' in bold blackletter type. A circular official stamp of the Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt, bearing an imperial eagle vignette, is applied at centre-bottom, flanked by the issue date 'Erfurt, den 12. August 1923' to the left and the authorising inscription 'Reichsbahndirektion' with a manuscript signature to the right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, presenting a plain expanse of the note's cream-yellow paper stock with no text, vignettes, or underprint of any kind. |
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| Comments |
Deutsche Reichsbahn's Erfurt directorate issued emergency Notgeld during the hyperinflation peak of 1923, when the Reichsmark was collapsing fast enough that state enterprises couldn't wait for central bank currency to arrive. Railway directorates across Germany were authorized to issue their own notes to pay wages and cover operational costs — this was a payroll instrument as much as a circulating note.
A. Stenger was a local Erfurt printer with no particular prestige in currency production. The five-million-mark denomination, enormous by any earlier standard, was already being overtaken by inflation within weeks of printing.