50 000 000 000 Mark

Issued in October 1923 at the absolute peak of Weimar hyperinflation, this 50-billion-Mark Notgeld from the Unna municipal authority represents one of the more extreme denominations produced before the Rentenmark stabilization ended the crisis in November of that year. Three signatures were required — two from the Magistrat and one from the Amtmann of the combined Unna-Kamen district office — a procedural formality that speaks to how seriously local authorities treated emergency currency issuance even as the numbers on the notes became almost comically large.

W. Sauerland was a local Unna printer, not a specialist currency house. At this stage of the inflation, speed mattered far more than security features.