100 000 000 000 Mark

Erkelenz issued this 100-billion Mark note in late 1923, when the Reichsbank could no longer supply emergency currency fast enough to match the collapsing purchasing power of the Mark. Local administrative bodies across Prussia were authorized — or simply compelled by circumstance — to print their own Notgeld to meet payroll and daily transactions. The printer, Ant. Scherer, was a local firm with no specialist banknote background; the watermark security feature is more aspirational than functional given the production context.

Eight signatories on a single district note is unusual. It reflects the collective authority structure of the Kreisausschuss rather than any particular printing anomaly.