I am just astranged over the high printed numbers and that so little still be around?
There's often a difference between the # printed (produced) & blocks of notes being stored in escrow, compared to the # issued (or released into circulation). Most normal runs & issues occur so there's no difference/discrepancy at all. However, there's been several time when the Central Bank or the printers hold back, destroy, or even recall a series, run, # of pallets (big blocks) of notes, etc. It's very important to keep this in mind when collecting banknotes.
A run (prefix/series) of notes are typically in batches of 10,000,000 here in Canada. In smaller island nations the runs are shorter like 1,000,000. In post-war Saarland, I'm sure they could have ordered runs in 100,000 range (Falkland Islands are in the 100,000). You then have to factor in who was using the notes (& how were they accepted by commercial enterprises). In Bahamas (& many island nations) they use the USD plus the Bahamian currency & both have been accepted across the island. It could have been that the people in this region were using Francs or German Marks along with the local Saar notes (& some businesses may have preferred one over the other). Six months of use is a blink of the eye!
And then, to make matters even more complicated, you have factor in how many people actually kept the notes (or could afford to keep them) at a time when money was so worthless compared to food & items needed to live.
If you want a bit of a fun read for post war Germany, then I would recommend the “Berlin Noir” trilogy by Philip Kerr. You can tell that its well researched as the main character Bernie Gunther is always discussing what currency will be more accepted in whatever region of Europe he's travelling (& as soon as he has cash he can't wait to use it on something sorely needed). Kerr gets into how the people went about rebuilding & surviving the brutally devastated aftermath.
