1 Mark

Berleburg — now Bad Berleburg, in the Sauerland region of Westphalia — was a small market town with no particular monetary significance before the hyperinflationary pressures of the early 1920s forced municipal authorities across Germany to issue their own emergency currency. This note is part of that Notgeld wave: local administrations printing small denominations simply to keep commerce functional when Reichsbank notes were hoarded or unavailable in adequate supply.

Deutsche Handels-Druckerei in Barmen handled a considerable volume of municipal Notgeld contracts during this period, which kept per-unit costs low for small issuers like Berleburg. The DeNG reference subdivisions (.1-3/3) indicate at least three recognized variants within the type.