10 000 Mark

Danzig's status as a Free City under League of Nations protection from 1920 onward left it in a peculiar monetary position — formally outside both Germany and Poland, yet economically tethered to the collapsing German mark. By early 1923, hyperinflation was destroying purchasing power so rapidly that local authorities were forced to issue emergency municipal currency, or Notgeld, simply to keep commerce functioning. The Stadtgemeinde notes were not a central bank product; they were a city government papering over a crisis it had no real tools to stop.

The 10,000 Mark denomination, enormous by pre-war standards, was rendered nearly trivial within months of issue as German inflation peaked in late 1923.