500 000 000 Mark

By late 1923, German municipal and district authorities were printing their own emergency currency — Notgeld — because the Reichsbank simply could not produce denominations fast enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. Kreis Ahrweiler, a rural administrative district in the Rhineland, turned to local printer Eduard Kirfel rather than waiting on central supply. That decision was entirely practical: transport delays alone could render a shipment of notes worthless before it arrived.

At 500 million Mark, this note dates from the period when German inflation was doubling roughly every few days. It would have had a useful life measured in hours.