10 Pfennigs waves and value in underprint

Rheingaukreis issued this note in 1917 under the Kleingeldersatz system — the Reich's framework permitting local authorities to produce low-denomination emergency currency (Notgeld) as wartime coin shortages bit into everyday commerce. The district, a wine-growing administrative unit along the Rhine between Rüdesschheim and Lorch, had no particular monetary infrastructure of its own; the authorization came from above, the printing contract went to Gebrüder Parcus in Munich, a firm that handled considerable Notgeld volume during this period for municipalities across Bavaria and beyond.

1917-dated municipal Notgeld tends to be the utilitarian first wave — purely functional, before issuers discovered collectors would pay premiums for decorative designs after the war.