200 000 000 Mark Spar- und Kredit-Bank

The Spar- und Kredit-Bank in Chemnitz was one of dozens of regional savings and credit institutions that resorted to issuing emergency currency — Notgeld — during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank's supply of official notes collapsed catastrophically against demand. A 200-million-mark denomination, which would have represented extraordinary wealth a year earlier, was by mid-to-late 1923 barely sufficient for routine transactions as the mark lost value by the hour.

Local printing was the only practical option; centralized supply had simply broken down.