0.50 Mark

Bielschowitz was a small industrial commune in Kreis Zabrze, deep in Upper Silesia's coal and zinc belt. This note is Kriegsgeld in its purest municipal form — issued in the first weeks of the 1914 mobilization, when the German banking system locked up and small change vanished almost overnight as metal was hoarded and mint output lagged behind demand. Hundreds of German municipalities did the same, but most were larger urban administrations; a Gemeindekasse at this scale issuing its own fractional paper is a genuinely local response to a systemic crisis.

The official stamp is the sole security measure — no watermark, no serial numbering scheme of any sophistication. Acceptance depended entirely on community trust and proximity.