2 Mark

Hersfeld's 1918 Notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency currency that flooded Germany as the imperial government lost control of small-denomination coinage circulation. The Magistrat — the town's administrative council, not a bank — had no printing infrastructure of its own, so production went to a local press, keeping both the design and the paper quality modest by any measure.

Bad Hersfeld, as the spa town was redesignated in 1949, was a minor issuer. Notes from small Hessian municipalities like this one were often printed in very limited quantities and redeemed quickly, which paradoxically makes worn examples harder to find than uncirculated remainder stock.