1 000 000 Mark

Stuttgart's municipal treasury issued this million-mark note during the summer of 1923, when German hyperinflation was accelerating so rapidly that denominations which seemed absurd in January were functionally worthless by August. Städtische Notgeld of this magnitude was not a novelty act — cities and towns across Germany were legally authorized to issue emergency money as the Reichsbank struggled to print fast enough to meet demand. Stuttgart's Stadtkasse printed locally rather than waiting for a Reichsbank allocation that might arrive devalued beyond use.

By November 1923, one U.S. dollar exchanged for roughly 4.2 trillion marks. A million-mark note would have bought a loaf of bread in midsummer, and nothing at all a few weeks later.