10 Pfennig

Bismark — the small Altmark town in Saxony-Anhalt, not to be confused with the Prussian statesman — issued this note during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early Weimar period. Municipalities across the country were effectively forced into emergency currency production when metal coinage disappeared from circulation, hoarded by a public that understood what inflation was doing to purchasing power.

The Va# reference places this within the Grabowski-Mehl Verkehrsausgaben catalog, the standard reference for German Notgeld of this type. Dr. Schumacher as a signatory almost certainly indicates the Bürgermeister's office — clerical co-signatories like Thiele were common practice for validating municipal paper.