50 000 000 Mark Stinnes-Zechen

Hugo Stinnes — coal baron, shipping magnate, and at one point the largest private industrial employer in Weimar Germany — was among the more aggressive participants in the emergency currency system that collapsed alongside the mark in 1923. His collieries issued Notgeld denominated in the tens of millions not because the amount represented real purchasing power, but because inflation was outrunning print schedules faster than any issuer could track.

Stinnes died in April 1924, before the full wreckage of his overextended empire became clear. The colliery operations were already issuing at 50-million-mark face values by mid-1923, when that sum would barely cover a loaf of bread.