1/2 Mark Spar- und Leihkasse

Scharmbeck — now Osterholz-Scharmbeck, north of Bremen — was a small market town with no particular monetary significance, but like hundreds of similar municipalities and cooperative institutions across Germany in 1918, its local savings and loan cooperative was forced to plug the coin shortage caused by wartime metal requisitioning. The Reichsbank's small-denomination coinage had effectively vanished from circulation by mid-war, hoarded or melted, and Notgeld of this kind was the practical result.

Selmar Bayer in Berlin handled enormous volumes of these emergency issues for provincial clients, which kept unit costs low but meant the notes carried little individual distinction. Single-signature authorization — here by one Straat — was common for cooperative-issued Notgeld at this fractional value.