50 000 000 Mark

Meißen's 50-million-Mark emergency note belongs to the frenzied mid-1923 phase of German hyperinflation, when municipal and commercial bodies across the Reich were legally permitted — indeed expected — to print their own notgeld to fill the void left by a central currency depreciating faster than it could be replaced. By August and September 1923, denominations that would have been unthinkable a year earlier were routine. Fifty million marks would, within weeks of this note's issue date, represent pocket change.

Meißen had the obvious advantage of proximity to one of Germany's finest porcelain traditions, and local notgeld from this municipality tends to reflect that civic pride in its printing quality — though the economics driving it were anything but decorative.