10 Pfennig Sparkasse

Mansfeld's lake district — the Seekreis — was copper mining country, and by 1920 the economic disruption of the postwar period had created a severe small-change shortage throughout provincial Germany. Local savings banks stepped in where the Reichsbank could not, issuing notgeld in denominations too small for the official system to bother with. The Sparkassen des Mansfelder Seekreises was one of hundreds of such institutions that briefly became de facto currency issuers by necessity.

The Grabowski-Mehl (M6.1a) and Vennen (1640.05.01) references suggest this is a documented type rather than a rarity, but Seekreis notgeld in circulated condition is harder to find than the collector issues produced elsewhere — these were made to spend, not save.