1 Mark

Emden's municipal administration issued this note under the emergency currency provisions that swept German local governments in the immediate postwar period. The Magistrat — the town's governing body — was authorized to issue Kleingeldscheine as the Reichsbank struggled to supply adequate coin and small denomination notes to a population already exhausted by wartime privation and the disruptions of demobilization.

Emden was a North Sea port, and its local Notgeld issues are sometimes overshadowed by the more artistically elaborate municipal series from interior Westphalian towns. This 1 Mark piece is a straightforward administrative issue rather than a collectible novelty printing.