5000 Mark

The Bayerische Notenbank was one of four German state banks permitted to issue their own banknotes under the 1875 Banking Act — a federalist concession that persisted well into the Weimar period. This 5000 Mark note appeared as German inflation was accelerating sharply; within a year of this issue, the denomination would be economically trivial, and the Reichsbank's emergency printings would render all state bank notes increasingly irrelevant before their formal absorption into the unified currency system.

Bavaria's notes were printed locally rather than through the Reichsdruckerei in Berlin, which gives the series a regionally distinct production character uncommon among contemporary German inflationary issues.