1 Mark Bochumer Verein für Bergbau und Gußstahlfabrikation

Bochumer Verein was one of the Ruhr's largest integrated steel and mining operations, and by 1917 the wartime coin shortage had forced hundreds of German industrial firms to issue their own emergency fractional currency — Notgeld — to pay workers who had nothing smaller to make change with. A steelworks issuing its own money to its own workforce was legally permissible under the circumstances, though the notes were theoretically redeemable only through the issuing firm and carried no backing from the Reichsbank.

The practical implication was that workers bore the redemption risk entirely.