100 000 Mark Bayer

Bayer's chemical and pharmaceutical works at Leverkusen issued this note during the Weimar hyperinflation, when the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet payroll demand across German industry. Emergency currency — Notgeld — issued by private firms was not merely tolerated but functionally necessary by mid-1923, and Bayer was among hundreds of industrial employers who printed their own denominations to pay workers on a weekly or even daily basis.

At 100,000 Mark, this note dates to a period when that sum was losing purchasing power by the hour. Within weeks of similar issues, denominations had climbed into the billions.