10 Pfennig

Fürstenberg an der Havel sits in what was then the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and like hundreds of small German municipalities it resorted to locally issued Notgeld during the coin shortages of the First World War. The Rat der Stadt — the town council — was the formal issuing authority, a common arrangement that gave these emergency pieces a veneer of civic legitimacy without any backing from the Reichsbank.

Small-denomination Mecklenburg Notgeld of this type was printed in large quantities but rarely survived daily handling intact; the paper was cheap and the notes changed hands constantly for minor transactions until proper coinage returned.