500 000 000 000 Mark

Neu-Ulm's city council issued this 500-billion-Mark note during the final weeks of Weimar hyperinflation, when municipal and commercial bodies across Germany were authorized to produce their own Notgeld simply to keep local commerce moving. By November 1923, the Reichsmark replaced the entire inflated currency stock at a rate of one new Mark to one trillion old ones — rendering notes like this worthless almost immediately after printing.

J. W. Hela was a local Neu-Ulm printer, not a specialist security printer, which makes the presence of a watermark notable. Most municipal emergency issues at this denomination dispensed with such features entirely.