1000 Mark

Hamburg's Finanzdeputation issued this note during the catastrophic hyperinflation of 1923, when municipal and regional authorities across Germany were legally permitted — then eventually forced — to issue their own emergency currency, Notgeld, to keep commerce functioning as Reichsbank output failed to keep pace with price velocity. By mid-1923, 1,000 Mark had become a trivial sum; notes like this one were often obsolete before they could be fully distributed.

H. O. Persiehl was a Hamburg-based printer with an established commercial relationship with the city's financial administration, which is why local production was both practical and fast. The guilloche underprint was a minimal concession to security in circumstances where counterfeiting was largely pointless — inflation was outpacing any fraudulent gain within days.