2 000 000 000 Mark

Triberg's two-billion mark note dates from the most acute phase of the German hyperinflation — autumn 1923, when municipal and regional authorities across the Reich were printing their own emergency currency (Notgeld) simply because the Reichsbank could not supply denominations large enough to cover daily transactions. The Stadtgemeinde Triberg, a small Black Forest spa town with no banking infrastructure of its own, was one of hundreds of minor German municipalities forced into issuing paper money as a matter of basic commerce.

The denomination itself tells the story. By October 1923 a single postage stamp cost billions of marks. Notes like this one had a usable life measured in days before the face value was rendered functionally worthless by the next wave of price increases.