50 000 000 Mark

Bamberg's municipal administration issued this note in 1923 during the hyperinflationary peak that saw the Reichsmark rendered effectively worthless within weeks of printing. Municipal and regional authorities across Germany were legally empowered to issue their own emergency currency — Notgeld — precisely because the Reichsbank could not print fast enough to meet daily transactional demand. By the time denominations reached eight figures, notes were sometimes spent within hours of receipt to avoid further devaluation.

J. Nagengast was a local Bamberg printer, not a specialist security printer. At this stage of the crisis, that distinction barely mattered — the notes' validity depended on municipal backing, not on sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures.