1.50 Mark

Malchow is a small lakeside town in Mecklenburg, and like hundreds of German municipalities it turned to emergency paper money — Notgeld — during the acute coin shortage that gripped Germany from 1914 onward. The 1.50 Mark denomination is an odd one, almost certainly reflecting a specific local wage or fare calculation rather than any standard currency unit, which is precisely why municipal Notgeld denominations vary so wildly from town to town.

Carl Flemming & Wiskott in Glogau were prolific Notgeld printers, supplying dozens of savings banks and municipalities across northern and eastern Germany. The Sparkasse der Stadt Malchow — the municipal savings bank, not a commercial institution — was the issuing authority, a common arrangement since savings banks held enough local trust to make the paper acceptable in trade.