50 000 000 000 Mark Reichsbahndirektion

The Reichsbahndirektion Altona was one of the regional directorates of the German state railway administration, and like many semi-governmental bodies during the hyperinflation of autumn 1923, it was authorized to issue emergency currency — Notgeld — to pay its own workers when the Reichsbank could not supply sufficient physical notes fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. By the time denominations reached fifty billion Mark, wages were being calculated and paid on a daily or even hourly basis to prevent them losing value before workers could spend them.

Chr. Adolff was a local Altona printer, not a specialist banknote house. The limitations of that show in surviving examples.