500 000 000 000 Mark Reichsbanknote, overprint on 5000 Mark

By late 1923, Germany's hyperinflation had so thoroughly outpaced the Reichsbank's ability to commission and deliver freshly printed notes that the institution resorted to overprinting existing stock — in this case, the 5000 Mark series — with denominations eleven orders of magnitude higher. The 500 Milliarden (500,000,000,000) Mark value represented roughly the cost of a loaf of bread at the peak of the crisis, though that figure shifted day to day.

Over twelve million examples were printed, yet surviving specimens are far more common in collector hands than actual circulation would suggest — many were set aside as curiosities even at the time, already understood to be historically absurd.