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10 000 000 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Kaiserslautern (City of Kaiserslautern) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Red and black letterpress Notgeld on cream paper, with a geometric lozenge-and-line underprint forming the border framework. The denomination 'Zehn Milliarden Mark' is set in a large, bold blackletter (Fraktur) typeface dominating the centre of the note. The issuing authority inscription 'NOTGELD DER STADT KAISERSLAUTERN' runs along the top and bottom borders in red capital letters, with the numeral '10' repeated in each corner; two manuscript signatures appear below the central text, attributed to the Bürgermeister and the Finanzrat, with the date 'Kaiserslautern, 10. Oktober 1923' between them. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | NOTGELD · DER · STADT Zehn Milliarden Mark KAISER·SLAUTERN BÜRGERMEISTER FINANZRAT Kaiserslautern, 10. Oktober 1923 Umlaufähig im ganzen Lagerungsbezirk Pfalz & giltig bis 1. April 1924 Zehn Milliarden Mark |
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| Comments |
Kaiserslautern's municipal emergency money belongs to the extreme end of the German hyperinflation series — by late 1923, even city governments were authorized to issue their own notes simply because the Reichsbank could not print fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. A 10-billion-Mark denomination from a mid-sized Palatinate city is unremarkable by the standards of that autumn; notes of this face value were being spent on bread within days of issue.
The Palatinate was under French occupation at the time, a complication that made local Notgeld politically fraught as well as economically desperate. The Rentenmark reform of November 1923 rendered the entire series worthless almost immediately after printing.