Heiligenhafen is a small Baltic port town in Schleswig-Holstein, and like hundreds of German municipalities during the First World War, it was forced into emergency coinage — Notgeld — when the Imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from the money supply entirely. Iron was the fallback. The date range spanning into 1923 suggests this type saw continued use or reissuance into the hyperinflationary period, when municipal scrip of any kind retained more practical utility than paper denominations that lost value by the hour.
Heiligenhafen is a small Baltic port town in Schleswig-Holstein, and like hundreds of German municipalities during the First World War, it was forced into emergency coinage — Notgeld — when the Imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from the money supply entirely. Iron was the fallback. The date range spanning into 1923 suggests this type saw continued use or reissuance into the hyperinflationary period, when municipal scrip of any kind retained more practical utility than paper denominations that lost value by the hour.