500 000 000 Mark

Barmen issued this 500-million Mark note in the autumn of 1923, when Reichsbank currency was arriving in such inadequate quantities that municipalities across the Rhineland and Ruhr were forced to print their own emergency money — Notgeld — just to meet weekly payroll. By the time denominations this large became necessary, the inflation had progressed to the point where a single tram fare required billions of marks within weeks of issue.

August Schmidtmann was a local Barmen printing firm, pressed into service because there was simply no time to commission outside specialists. The official stamp and the Oberbürgermeister's signature were the only practical security against counterfeiting — not that forgery was much of an incentive when the notes lost value faster than they could be faked.