100 000 000 Mark Deutsche Reichsbahn

The Deutsche Reichsbahn began issuing its own emergency currency in 1923 because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet demand. Railway workers needed to be paid, and the state railway system — one of the largest employers in Germany — had both the institutional weight and the physical infrastructure to distribute notgeld at scale. By the time denominations reached nine figures, payroll calculations had become an exercise in zeroes rather than economics.

The S-prefix in the Pick reference designates this as a private or semi-official issuer rather than a central bank note — a distinction that mattered legally at the time but meant little to the worker receiving it on a Friday afternoon in October 1923.