5 000 000 000 Mark

Krefeld's municipal authority — like hundreds of German cities — was forced into emergency currency issuance during the hyperinflationary peak of autumn 1923, when the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet demand. By the time denominations in the billions of Marks were being issued, the purchasing power of a note could collapse within hours of printing, making the physical logistics of distribution as economically significant as the denomination itself.

The five billion Mark figure places this note firmly in the final weeks before the Rentenmark stabilization of November 1923, when municipal notgeld of this scale became worthless almost immediately upon issue.