100 000 000 Mark

One of thousands of emergency currency issues — Notgeld — printed by German municipalities during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsmark was collapsing so fast that local authorities had no choice but to print their own denominations to keep commerce moving. By August 1923, a hundred million marks was barely enough for a tram fare. By November it was worthless altogether, the entire episode ending with the Rentenmark stabilization of 15 November 1923.

Mülheim an der Ruhr, an industrial city in the Ruhr Valley, was printing this note during the French and Belgian occupation of the region — itself a major accelerant of the currency crisis.