10 Pfennig

Bernstadt — now Bierutów in southwestern Poland — was one of hundreds of small German municipalities that printed their own Kleingeldersatz (small change substitute) during the acute coin shortage that followed the First World War. The Reichsbank's metal reserves had been largely consumed by the war economy, and fractional coins had effectively vanished from everyday commerce by 1918–1920, hoarded or melted. Local authorities, guilds, and even individual businesses stepped in to fill the gap.

These Notgeld issues from small Silesian towns are generally common as a type but tend to survive only in collector-preserved condition — they circulated hard and fast in a local economy before being quickly superseded.