1/2 Mark

Lübbecke is a small Westphalian town, and its 1920 Notgeld issues came directly out of the post-war small-change famine that forced hundreds of German municipalities to print their own emergency fractions. The Magistrat — the town's governing body — authorized these under the signatures of Pütz and Bläse, local officials whose names appear on virtually no other numismatic material anywhere.

Paper half-mark pieces from minor municipalities were discarded at high rates once the Reichsbank restabilized small-coin supplies. Lübbecke's issues were never produced in the large decorative print runs that the Serienscheine collectors' market later generated — these were functional scrip, printed plainly and used hard.