100 000 Mark

Cottbus was one of hundreds of German municipalities forced into emergency currency production during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank could not print Reichsmarks fast enough to meet demand. The Stadt Cottbus — specifically its Magistrat, the municipal executive body — issued this 100,000 Mark note as Notgeld, locally authorized and locally printed. By the time denominations reached six figures, the purchasing power of any given note had often collapsed before the ink was dry.

Municipal Notgeld of this period was typically printed by local firms on whatever paper stock was available, which accounts for the wide variation in paper quality found across surviving examples from this series.