Editing Notgeld (section)

===1922 and 1923: Hyperinflation===
[[File:Notgeld fritz quant 10 millionen mark.jpg|thumb|{{lang|de|Notgeld}} for 10 million Mark from Trier, Germany (1923), view of Trier. Design by [[Fritz Quant]], after a copperplate print by [[Matthäus Merian]] (1646)]]
In 1922, due to uncontrolled printing of money, [[inflation]] started to get out of control in Germany, culminating in [[inflation in the Weimar Republic|hyperinflation]]. Throughout the year, the value of the mark deteriorated faster and faster, and new money was issued in higher and higher denominations. The {{lang|de|Reichsbank|italic=no}} could not cope with the logistics of providing all these new notes, and {{lang|de|Notgeld}} was again issued—this time in denominations of hundreds and then thousands of Marks.

[[File:5milmkbk.jpg|thumb|A 5 million mark coin, issued by the [[Westphalia|Province of Westphalia]] during the hyperinflation of 1923]]
By July 1923, the {{lang|de|Reichsbank|italic=no}} had totally lost control of the economy. {{lang|de|Notgeld}} flooded the economy; it was issued by any city, town, business, or club that had access to a printing press, in order to meet the ever-increasing rise in prices. Even {{lang|de|Serienscheine}} were being hand-stamped with large denominations to meet the demand. By September, {{lang|de|Notgeld}} was denominated in the tens of millions; by October, in billions; by November, trillions.

On November 12, the {{lang|de|Reichsbank|italic=no}} declared the Mark to be valueless, and ceased all issuance. By now, {{lang|de|Notgeld}} was being denominated in the form of commodities or other currencies: wheat, rye, oats, sugar, coal, wood, quantities of natural gas, and kilowatt-hours of electricity. These pieces were known as {{lang|de|Wertbeständige}}, or notes of "fixed value". There were also {{lang|de|Notgeld}} coins that were made of compressed coal dust. These became quite rare, as most of them were eventually traded with the [[coal merchant]] issuer for actual coal and some may have even been burned as fuel.