20 000 000 000 Mark

Hannover's city treasury issued this note during the hyperinflationary peak of autumn 1923, when the Reichsbank could not supply currency fast enough to meet daily demand. Municipalities, businesses, and even transit companies issued their own emergency money — Notgeld — to keep commerce moving. At 20 billion Mark, this denomination reflects the final weeks before the Rentenmark stabilization in November 1923 effectively ended the inflation crisis.

Gebrüder Jänecke was a well-established Hannover printing house, which kept production local and fast. The embossed seal was the city's attempt at rudimentary authentication on paper that was, by then, worth less than the cost of printing it.