1 000 000 000 Mark

By late 1923, German municipal and district authorities were issuing their own emergency currency — Notgeld — because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. The Landkreis Essen, the rural administrative district surrounding the city proper, was one of dozens of Rhenish authorities pushed into this position during the Ruhr occupation, when French and Belgian forces had cut off the region's industrial economy and the German government was funding passive resistance by printing money with abandon.

A billion marks. In circulation, this note would have bought a loaf of bread — if that.