German papiermark

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A 500 Million mark banknote from Germany of 1923 (http://www.germannotes.com)

The name Papiermark (German: paper mark) can be applied to the German currency from the point in 1914 when the link between the Mark and gold was abandoned, due to the outbreak of the First World War. In particular, the name was used for the banknotes issued during the hyperinflation in Germany of 1922 and especially 1923, which was a result of the Germans' decision to pay their war debt by printing banknotes.

The victor nations in WWI decided to assess Germany for their costs of conducting the war against Germany. With no means of paying in gold or currency backed by reserves, Germany ran the presses until the debt was paid, causing the value of the mark to collapse.

During the war, cheaper metals were introduced for the coins, including aluminium, zinc and iron, although silver ½ Mark pieces continued in production until 1919. Emergency issues of both tokens and paper money were made, known as Kriegsgeld (war money) and Notgeld (emergency money).

During the hyperinflation, ever higher denominations of banknotes were issued by the Reichsbank and other institutions (notably the Reichsbahn railway company). Almost no coins were minted during this period; except for a short-lived issue of 200 Mark and 500 Mark coins made of aluminium only banknotes were issued. The Papiermark was produced and circulated in enormously large quantities. Denominations went up to 100,000,000,000,000 (written as 100 billion) Mark.

Note: In German, after "Million" (British and American English "million") comes "Milliarde" (British "milliard" and American "billion") and then "Billion" (British "billion" and American "trillion"). Because of these translation issues, confusion can sometimes arise about which number is meant. In German, Billion is defined as "one million times one million" (10¹²), or 1,000,000,000,000, as the long scale is used in German-speaking Europe, as in most countries in the world, including most speakers of British English. By contrast, many other English-speaking countries such as the United States define "billion" "one thousand times one million" (10⁹), or 1,000,000,000, as the short scale is used in the United States. To prevent confusion for an international English-speaking audience, English-language documents sometimes use expressions like "one thousand million" or "one million million" to avoid the "milliard/billion/trillion" issue.

After the inflation in Germany was stopped by economic reform, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at an exchange rate of 1,000,000,000,000 old Mark, later replaced by the Reichsmark.