10 Pfennig Gewerbebank Köln-Mülheim

Köln-Mülheim was an independent municipality on the right bank of the Rhine until its absorption into Cologne proper in 1914 — the Gewerbebank, a cooperative credit institution serving local tradespeople, retained the hyphenated name well into the Weimar inflation years. Notes like this 10 Pfennig emerged from the Kleingeldersatz emergency that gripped Germany through 1921–1923, when small coin essentially vanished from circulation and thousands of local authorities, cooperatives, and businesses filled the gap themselves.

Heiss & Co. in Cologne-Lindenthal handled much of the regional notgeld printing work. The designer credit to Ruland is one of the few details distinguishing this issue from the generic run of cooperative emergency scrip.