5 000 000 Mark Rheinische Stahlwerke

Rheinische Stahlwerke was one of the major Ruhr steel producers, and like hundreds of German industrial firms in 1923, it issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — to pay its workers when the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough physical notes to keep pace with hyperinflation. By the time five-million-mark denominations were being printed, the purchasing power of any given note was collapsing within days of issue, sometimes hours.

Industrial Notgeld of this type circulated almost entirely within the factory payroll system and local Duisburg-Meiderich commerce. Most were spent immediately.