200 000 000 Mark

Bad Ems issued this 200,000,000 Mark note during the hyperinflationary collapse of late 1923, when German municipal and regional authorities were printing emergency currency — Notgeld — faster than the Reichsbank could supply legal tender. By the time denominations reached nine figures, the purchasing power of a note was often obsolete within days of printing. The watermarked paper on this issue was almost certainly recycled from earlier, more stable printing stocks rather than procured fresh for the purpose.

The Keller reference places it firmly in the second variant of this denomination for Bad Ems, distinguishing it from the closely related first issue by a detail that remains easy to overlook without direct comparison in hand.