10 000 000 Mark

Herne was a mid-sized industrial town in the Ruhr, and its municipal notgeld from the hyperinflation peak of 1923 was printed locally out of necessity rather than design ambition. By late 1923, Reichsbank currency was arriving so devalued it was functionally useless before it could be distributed — municipalities across the Ruhr issued their own denominations simply to meet payroll for mine and factory workers. Herne's coalfield economy made liquidity particularly urgent; wages had to be paid weekly, then daily, to have any purchasing power at all.

The ten-million mark denomination, staggering by any prior standard, was already routine by August 1923.