Bad Sulza was a small spa town in Thuringia, and like hundreds of German municipalities in 1918, it issued its own emergency small-change notes — Notgeld — when coins disappeared from circulation as metal was requisitioned for the war effort. These hyperlocal issues were produced in enormous variety, often by local printers with no experience in currency production, which accounts for the wide inconsistency in paper quality and stamping across surviving examples.
The official stamp served as the primary authentication device in the absence of more sophisticated security printing. Without it, the note had no standing.
Bad Sulza was a small spa town in Thuringia, and like hundreds of German municipalities in 1918, it issued its own emergency small-change notes — Notgeld — when coins disappeared from circulation as metal was requisitioned for the war effort. These hyperlocal issues were produced in enormous variety, often by local printers with no experience in currency production, which accounts for the wide inconsistency in paper quality and stamping across surviving examples.
The official stamp served as the primary authentication device in the absence of more sophisticated security printing. Without it, the note had no standing.