5000 Mark

Düsseldorf's municipal administration issued its own emergency currency during the hyperinflation of 1923 — one of hundreds of German cities and towns that bypassed the Reichsbank entirely when the national currency lost all practical value faster than new notes could be shipped. These Stadtnotgeld issues were technically illegal under imperial-era banking statutes but were tolerated out of sheer necessity; commerce had to function somehow.

The 5000 Mark denomination, enormous by pre-war standards, was already a trivially small sum by mid-1923. Notes like this one often became obsolete within weeks of printing, overtaken by successive issues in the millions and billions.