10 Pfennig

Güstrow's municipal council — the Rat der Stadt — issued emergency paper Pfennig notes during the notgeld crisis of 1914–1923, when coin shortages stripped Germany's smaller denominations from circulation almost entirely. Towns and cities across the country printed their own stopgap currency, and Güstrow was no exception. The legal authority for municipal issuers was perpetually murky; many of these notes circulated on little more than local trust.

Small-denomination notgeld on plain paper deteriorates quickly and was rarely saved with any care, making intact low-value examples from minor municipalities harder to locate than the more collectible pictorial series.