500 000 Mark

Ludwigshafen issued its own emergency currency — Notgeld — because the Reichsbank simply could not print fast enough to meet the demand created by hyperinflation. By mid-1923, the mark was losing value so rapidly that payroll runs required denominations that would have been unimaginable twelve months earlier. A 500,000 Mark note was not a large sum by the time it reached circulation.

Municipal issues like this one were printed locally and backed by nothing more than civic authority — the city's promise to accept them in payment of local taxes and fees.