10 Pfennig

Stadt Melle's 10 Pfennig Notgeld of 1917 was a direct response to the severe coin shortage that gripped Germany as the war economy hoarded metal. Municipalities across the Reich were authorized to issue their own emergency paper fractions, and hundreds did — but most contracted outside printers. Melle printed locally, through F. E. Haag, a provincial press operating in the same town as the issuing authority.

The official stamp served as the primary authentication device, a common arrangement when engraved security printing was neither accessible nor economical for small issuers. Without it, the note was void.