10 000 000 Mark

Haslach im Kinzigtal was a small Black Forest town with no business issuing ten-million-mark banknotes — and yet here it was, forced to do so along with thousands of other German municipalities during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923. The Stadtgemeinde notes were emergency Notgeld in the most literal sense: the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough, so local authorities filled the gap with whatever press was available. In this case, that was the Kinzigtäler Nachrichten, the local newspaper printer, a thoroughly civilian operation repurposed overnight into a currency producer.

By the time ten-million-mark denominations were necessary, the note had roughly the purchasing power of a streetcar ticket — if that. The Rentenmark reform of November 1923 rendered the entire series worthless within weeks of issue.