1 Mark

Ennigerloh is a small Westphalian town whose municipality issued this note during the Kleingeldschein period — when chronic coin shortages after the First World War forced German localities at every level, including rural communities, to print their own fractional currency. W. Girardet in Essen was a commercial printer with no special banking connection; municipalities simply contracted whoever could deliver quickly and cheaply.

These municipal issues had no central authorization beyond emergency necessity, and redemption was theoretically guaranteed by the issuing commune — a promise that became increasingly hollow as inflation accelerated through 1921 and into 1922.