In Germany in 1923, rapid inflation made it urgent to cash wages and exchange the money for goods as quickly as possible. A published historical account records people waiting in line at a bank to cash pay cheques, fearing that a delay would leave the same wages able to buy far less food.\n\nThe object of this queue was more than a routine banking transaction. It was an ordered wait to protect household purchasing power while that power was disappearing with time. The earlier draft’s specific attribution to Berlin is not retained because the direct evidence does not securely establish that city; the article is limited to the verified country, period and physical wage-cashing line.