20 000 000 000 Mark Sächsische Bank

The Sächsische Bank zu Dresden was one of four German private note-issuing banks still operating in 1923, and like the others it found itself printing emergency denominations it had never anticipated. This 20-billion Mark note was issued during the hyperinflation peak — by October 1923, a single U.S. dollar was worth roughly 4.2 trillion Marks, meaning this note represented a fraction of a modest purchase.

Giesecke & Devrient, headquartered in Leipzig, had the geographic advantage of being the Sächsische Bank's nearest major printer. Production speed mattered far more than security at this stage; the watermark was retained largely as a holdover from pre-crisis printing standards rather than any practical anti-counterfeiting concern.