In 1919, the German Empire had to pay debit interests worth 126 percent of its regular income: the redemption of debts could only be paid by further borrows. In the following years, increase of national debt thus broke all records. In 1923, national debt resulted in excessive creation of money – which in turn caused the prices to explode. The Reichsbank had to issue ever bigger denominations. At the beginning of February 1923, the first bill on 100,000 marks was issued; at the end of the same month, a bill on a million marks appeared. In September, banknotes on 1, 5 and 10 billion marks were common; the beginning of November marked the emergence of banknotes worth trillions.