2 000 000 Mark

Wetzlar's municipal treasury issued this 2-million-mark note at the absolute peak of Weimar hyperinflation, when German cities and towns printed their own emergency currency — Notgeld — simply because the Reichsbank could not supply denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. By August 1923, a note of this face value was worth roughly what a few loaves of bread had cost the previous week.

The Scharfes printing works was a local Wetzlar firm, and the use of a hometown printer was typical of the practical urgency behind late-phase hyperinflation Notgeld — municipal authorities could not wait for outside suppliers.