20 000 000 000 Mark

Göttingen's municipal authority issued this note during the hyperinflation peak of late 1923, when German city and district governments were legally permitted — effectively compelled — to produce their own emergency currency, Notgeld, as the Reichsbank could not print denominations fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. The twenty-billion-mark figure on this note was not exceptional for October 1923; within weeks, notes of one trillion marks were in common use.

The watermarked paper is notable given the circumstances — most municipal issuers of this period printed on whatever stock was available, often plain or even one-sided. That Göttingen used security paper suggests some stock had been reserved or sourced locally before the supply chains deteriorated entirely.