10 000 000 Mark

Cottbus was one of hundreds of German municipalities forced into emergency currency production during the hyperinflation spiral of 1923, but printing locally — as Cottbus did through Otto Enke — was relatively uncommon. Most cities of similar size contracted out to established security printers in Leipzig or Berlin. That Enke, a local firm, handled a denomination this large suggests the issue was produced under extreme time pressure, when waiting for an outside printer was no longer practical.

By August 1923, when notes in the tens of millions of marks were entering circulation, the purchasing power of any given denomination could halve within days. These were functional instruments of a collapsing system, not monetary policy.