50 000 000 Mark

Tübingen's municipal administration — like hundreds of German towns — was forced into emergency currency issuance during the hyperinflation of 1923, as the Reichsbank simply could not print and distribute legal tender fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. The fifty-million mark denomination tells you exactly where this note sits in that timeline: by late summer 1923, denominations that would have seemed fictional twelve months earlier were routine wage packets.

The embossed seal is the authenticating device here, applied locally to deter the widespread forgery that plagued Notgeld at higher denominations. Overprinting existing stock was the faster solution — new stones or plates took time nobody had.