5 000 000 Mark

Kirn is a small town in the Nahe valley of Rhineland-Palatinate, and this five-million mark note is a product of the German hyperinflation peak of 1923 — a period when municipal governments across Germany were legally authorized to print their own emergency currency, known as Notgeld, simply to keep local commerce functioning. The Reichsbank could not produce denominations fast enough to match inflation that was, by autumn 1923, doubling prices every few days.

Fr. Melsbach in nearby Sobernheim was a regional commercial printer pressed into monetary service. The official stamp is the only security measure — which says everything about how briefly these notes were expected to remain relevant.