10 000 000 000 Mark

Kreisamt Bingen was one of hundreds of regional German administrative bodies forced into emergency currency production during the hyperinflation peak of autumn 1923, when the Reichsbank could not supply denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. A ten-billion-mark note — printed by a local commercial printer, Vincenz Pekarek, working almost certainly on whatever paper stock was available — was an entirely ordinary transaction instrument by the time October arrived. Workers were being paid daily, sometimes twice daily, to outrun the afternoon exchange rate.

Pekarek's output for Bingen was purely functional. The signature of "Schön" as the authorizing Kreisamt official gave the notes their legal standing within the district.