100 000 000 000 Mark Reichsbanknote

By the time this note was authorized in late October 1923, the Reichsbank was issuing denominations that would have been unimaginable eighteen months earlier. The 100 billion Mark note sits near the top of the hyperinflationary spiral that saw the Mark lose essentially all value between the summer and November 1923 — when Stresemann's government finally introduced the Rentenmark at a conversion rate of one trillion old Marks to one new unit.

Printing at this scale created genuine logistical problems. Paper supply, ink, and press time were all strained; some notes from this period were printed on one side only, or on whatever stock was available. P#126 was produced in Berlin, but regional emergency issuers were simultaneously flooding the country with their own Notgeld to compensate for the Reichsbank's inability to keep up with demand.

Circulation life was measured in hours.