1 000 000 000 Mark Duisburger Kupferhütte

Duisburger Kupferhütte was one of hundreds of German industrial firms that resorted to printing their own emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. A billion marks — one Milliarde — was not an extraordinary sum by mid-to-late 1923; by November of that year, a single loaf of bread cost several hundred billion. Notgeld at this denomination was printed, spent, and rendered worthless within days, sometimes hours.

Copper smelter scrip of this kind was issued primarily to pay wages — workers needed something they could spend locally before the value evaporated on the walk home from the factory gate.