1 000 000 000 Mark

A billion-mark note from a district-level administrative authority rather than a bank — the Amtshauptmannschaft Chemnitz was a Saxon regional office that took on emergency currency issuance during the hyperinflation of 1923 because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet demand. These Notgeld issues at the billion-mark level were themselves nearly obsolete within weeks of printing; the inflation curve was accelerating so sharply that denominations requiring nine zeros were being superseded by trillion-mark notes before distribution was complete.

Locally printed in Chemnitz, which had a developed textile and printing industry infrastructure that made rapid small-run production feasible for municipal and district authorities.