100 000 Mark

Chemnitz was one of hundreds of German municipalities forced to print its own emergency currency during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923, when the Reichsbank could not produce notes fast enough to keep pace with the mark's devaluation. By August of that year, 100,000 marks — a sum that would have seemed fantastical just two years earlier — could barely cover a tram fare. Stadt Chemnitz, a major Saxon industrial center, issued this note under the legal framework of Notgeld, which gave local authorities temporary authority to produce circulating paper.

The printing was done locally, almost certainly on commercial presses not designed for currency work — a practical necessity, not a choice. Typographic quality across the Chemnitz municipal issues varies noticeably within the same series.