1 000 000 000 Mark

Baden-Baden's municipal administration issued this milliard-mark note during the most violent phase of the 1923 hyperinflation, when German cities and towns were printing their own emergency currency — Notgeld — because the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations large enough fast enough to keep commerce moving. A billion marks was not an extraordinary sum by late 1923 standards; it barely covered a tram fare.

Ivo Puhonny, a Baden-Baden-based illustrator and poster artist, designed for this series — an unusual case of a locally recognized commercial artist working directly for his own municipality's emergency issue. Doering-Druck handled production in-house, which kept the entire operation within the city.