500 000 000 Mark Bautz

J. Bautz A.-G. was an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Saulgau — not a bank, not a municipality, not a government body. That it was authorizing and printing its own emergency currency at the 500 million Mark level tells you exactly where Germany was in the autumn of 1923, when hyperinflation was accelerating faster than official money could be distributed. Industrial firms across Württemberg issued notgeld simply to pay their workers, who would have otherwise received nothing spendable by the time official notes arrived.

Gebr. Edel was a local Saulgau printer, which almost certainly kept turnaround times short — a practical necessity when denominations were becoming obsolete within days.