50 000 000 Mark

Landkreis Greiz was one of hundreds of German local authorities forced to print their own emergency currency during the hyperinflationary collapse of 1923, when the Reichsmark was depreciating so fast that the Reichsbank could not print and distribute denominations quickly enough to keep commerce moving. By late summer of that year, 50 million marks would barely purchase a loaf of bread — a figure that had been unimaginable twelve months earlier.

The official stamp served as the primary authentication mechanism, a deliberate low-cost solution when elaborate printing security was pointless for a note expected to be worthless within weeks. Greiz, a small textile-industry town in Thuringia, had no standing printing infrastructure for currency, so production was necessarily improvised and local.