1 Mark Hotel zum Amtsgericht

Hotel zum Amtsgericht — "Hotel at the Court of Justice" — was one of thousands of German commercial establishments that issued their own emergency small-change notes during the Kleingeldersatz crisis of 1914–1923, when metal coinage vanished from circulation almost overnight at the outbreak of war. A hotel issuing scrip redeemable presumably only on its own premises, or locally in Gronau, was under no central banking obligation; these notes lived and died by the reputation of the business behind them.

Fr. Wilh. Ruhfus of Dortmund was a prolific Notgeld printer, handling commissions from dozens of municipalities and private issuers across Westphalia.