500 000 Mark

Lörrach sits on the Rhine directly across from Basel, and in August–September 1923, when this 500,000 Mark emergency note was issued, the city's proximity to Switzerland was acutely felt — local workers were demanding wages tied to the Swiss Franc because Reichsmarks were losing value faster than payroll could be processed. Municipal authorities across Baden were printing Notgeld not out of administrative choice but out of raw necessity, with no functioning alternative.

The embossed seal was the city's primary — and fairly minimal — concession to authenticity. At the inflation's peak, the cost of the ink and paper to print a note was itself a meaningful fraction of the note's face value.