50 000 000 000 Mark Deutsche Reichsbahn

The Deutsche Reichsbahn issued its own emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923 because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet demand. Railway workers needed to be paid, and waiting for central bank notes to arrive was not an option. The Reichsbahn, like many large industrial employers of that period, became a de facto issuer of Notgeld at denominations that would have been unthinkable even six months earlier.

By the time fifty-billion-mark notes were necessary, the inflation was within weeks of its terminal collapse. The Rentenmark stabilization came in November 1923, rendering the entire series worthless almost immediately after issue.