5000 Mark

Mindelheim is a small market town in Swabia, and its city council issuing emergency currency at the 5,000 Mark level places this note squarely in the German inflation spiral of late 1922, when municipal and commercial bodies across Bavaria printed Notgeld simply to keep wages moving. The Bundesdruckerei — formerly the Reichsdruckerei — was an unusual choice for a town this size; most comparable Bavarian municipalities used regional printers, and commissioning Berlin's state printing works suggests either a bulk procurement arrangement or a consortium order shared across several Swabian issuers.

By the time notes of this denomination were printed, 5,000 Mark bought roughly what a few pfennig had managed two years earlier.