20 000 000 000 Mark

Reutlingen's municipal administration issued this 20-billion Mark note during the hyperinflation peak of late 1923, when the Reichsbank could not produce currency fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. Municipalities, districts, and private firms were authorized to issue their own emergency money — Notgeld — to fill the void. Reutlingen was among hundreds of German towns doing exactly this simultaneously.

The watermarked paper is worth noting: by this stage of the crisis, many issuers had abandoned security features entirely as irrelevant — counterfeiting paper money whose value evaporated within hours was economically pointless. That Reutlingen retained a watermark suggests either prior stock was used or the printer still had specification paper on hand.