10 000 Mark

Pforzheim's municipal administration — like hundreds of German cities and towns — was forced into emergency currency production as hyperinflation outpaced the Reichsbank's ability to supply usable denominations. This 10,000 Mark note dates from the period when that figure was still a meaningful sum, a window that closed within weeks; by late 1923, denominations were climbing into the billions and trillions.

The embossed seal was the city's primary anti-counterfeiting measure, practical given that most Notgeld of this period was produced by local printers with whatever was on hand. Pforzheim's identity as a center of jewelry and precision metalworking sits behind nothing here — this was administrative necessity, not civic pride.