20 000 000 Mark

Zweibrücken's 20-million Mark note dates from August or September 1923, the apex of Weimar hyperinflation, when municipal and district authorities across Germany were legally permitted — and practically forced — to print their own emergency currency, Notgeld, to fill the void left by a Reichsmark that was losing value by the hour. The Stadtverwaltung issued these not as a monetary statement but as a logistical necessity: workers needed to be paid, and state-supplied currency simply wasn't arriving fast enough.

The official stamp served as the primary authentication device, a telling sign of how rudimentary production had become by this stage of the crisis.