10 Pfennig

Gera's municipal notgeld issues of 1920 belong to the first wave of German emergency money — driven not by hyperinflation, which came later, but by a chronic shortage of small-denomination Reichsbank coinage that had been hoarded or melted since the war years. Cities and towns across Thuringia printed their own fractional notes because there was simply nothing else to make change with.

The blind stamp — an embossed seal applied without ink — was a low-cost authentication measure favored by smaller issuers who lacked access to more sophisticated security printing. It deterred casual forgery without requiring specialized equipment.