100 000 Mark

Kreis Moers issued this note during the hyperinflation peak of 1923, when German municipal and district authorities were legally permitted — and practically forced — to print their own emergency currency (Notgeld) to meet payroll and daily commerce demands. The Reichsbank simply could not supply enough physical notes fast enough as denominations spiraled upward. L. Schwann in Düsseldorf was a well-established printing and publishing house, not a specialist banknote printer, which was entirely typical for third-tier Notgeld contracts at this stage of the crisis.

By mid-1923, a 100,000 Mark note was worth only a fraction of what a 1,000 Mark note had purchased twelve months earlier. Most Kreis-level issues circulated briefly before being superseded by higher denominations within weeks.