Thale am Harz issued this Notgeld note during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar economic disruption — municipal authorities across the country were legally permitted to issue emergency currency at the local level, and hundreds of small towns did exactly that between 1919 and 1922. Louis Koch of Halberstadt was a regional commercial printer, not a specialist security printer, which makes the presence of a watermark here somewhat notable; many comparable municipal issues from this period skipped that feature entirely.
Bürgermeister Schönermark's signature gives the note its legal standing under the issuing authority of the city administration rather than any banking institution.
Thale am Harz issued this Notgeld note during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar economic disruption — municipal authorities across the country were legally permitted to issue emergency currency at the local level, and hundreds of small towns did exactly that between 1919 and 1922. Louis Koch of Halberstadt was a regional commercial printer, not a specialist security printer, which makes the presence of a watermark here somewhat notable; many comparable municipal issues from this period skipped that feature entirely.
Bürgermeister Schönermark's signature gives the note its legal standing under the issuing authority of the city administration rather than any banking institution.