500 000 000 000 Mark Lippstadt

By the time Lippstadt issued this 500-billion-Mark note in late 1923, the Reichsbank had long since lost control of the money supply. Municipal and private emergency issuers — the so-called Notgeldstellen — were printing at denominations that had been unimaginable twelve months earlier. Lippstadt's city administration was among hundreds of local German authorities legally authorized to issue their own Notgeld during the hyperinflationary peak, filling a practical vacuum left by banknotes that became worthless faster than they could be distributed.

The official stamp serves as the primary authentication device — a telling sign of how improvised the entire system had become. Designer A. Höke's credit suggests local production, consistent with many municipal issues of the period that bypassed professional security printers entirely out of necessity and speed.