1 000 000 Mark

Fürth's municipal treasury — Stadtkasse, not a bank — became an emergency currency issuer like hundreds of German cities during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. By the time million-mark notes were being printed at the local level, a single loaf of bread could cost more than the entire pre-war German national debt.

Three signatures were required for authorization: the Oberbürgermeister, two Bürgermeisters. That level of civic sign-off on what was essentially disposable emergency scrip reflects how seriously — or desperately — municipalities treated their legal exposure in issuing notgeld at this denomination.