| Obverse description |
Printed on salmon-orange paper in black letterpress, the note is designed as two separable 5-Pfennig coupons divided by a horizontal dashed perforation line, each half mirrored — the lower half inverted relative to the upper. Each half carries the denomination numeral '5' in large bold Gothic typeface at the corners, flanked by the word 'Pfennig' on either side, with a central circular vignette of an embossed municipal seal bearing a heraldic eagle and the inscription 'STADT-GEMEINDE QUEDLINBURG'. The heading 'Städtische Sparkasse Quedlinburg' appears in Gothic blackletter script at the top of the upper coupon, with the legend 'Gutschein' and 'Getrennt über 5 Pf.' flanking the central numeral '10' between the two halves. The entire note is framed by a decorative dashed border. |
| Reverse description |
The reverse is divided into two text panels separated by a horizontal dashed perforation line, printed in black on a light ground with an orange-tinted inner field and a decorative dashed border. The upper panel, headed 'Städtische Sparkasse / Rathaus und Bahnhofstr. 1.', lists the savings bank's services in Gothic blackletter: acceptance of deposits with and without notice period, cheque, deposit and current account transactions, and custody, purchase and sale of securities. The lower panel, headed 'Städtische Sparkasse Quedlinburg / Rathaus und Bahnhofstr. 1.', tabulates interest rates for various notice periods, ranging from 3½% for six-week notice to 3% for other deposits, with a faint embossed municipal seal visible as an underprint. |
Städtische Sparkasse Quedlinburg was one of hundreds of German municipal savings institutions that issued their own small-denomination Notgeld during the acute coin shortages of 1916–1922. These civic emergency issues were authorized locally, not by the Reichsbank, and the issuing authority bore full redemption responsibility — a liability many smaller towns quietly defaulted on once the hyperinflation peaked and the notes became worthless faster than they could be called in.
Quedlinburg's issues are not among the more elaborately printed Notgeld series. Collector demand for this specific note is modest.