1 000 000 000 Mark

Giengen an der Brenz is a small Württemberg town best known as the birthplace of the Steiff teddy bear. That it was issuing billion-mark emergency notes in 1923 tells you everything about how completely the Reichsbank had lost control of monetary supply during the hyperinflation peak. Municipal and commercial entities across Germany were forced into notgeld issuance simply to provide functional change and wages — the central printing infrastructure could not keep pace with denomination escalation.

By late 1923, a billion marks was roughly a tram fare. The watermark on this issue is a minor but deliberate anti-counterfeiting gesture, somewhat absurd given that the note's face value was essentially worthless before the ink dried.