½ Goldmark

Kreis Norderdithmarschen was one of dozens of German administrative districts forced into emergency currency production during the hyperinflation of 1923, when the Reichsbank could not supply adequate legal tender fast enough for daily transactions. This Kreiskommunalkasse — the district communal treasury — issued fractional Goldmark notes as Germany was attempting to stabilize its currency by anchoring new denominations to gold values, a transitional measure that made sub-unit notes briefly necessary before the Rentenmark reform took hold in November 1923.

Printed locally in Heide, the district capital of Norderdithmarschen, rather than by any of the established security printers. The shelf life of these notes was measured in weeks.