2 Mark Kreis Neustadt in Westpreußen

Neustadt in Westpreußen — now Wejherowo in northern Poland — issued this 2 Mark Notgeld in the opening weeks of the First World War, part of the emergency small-change currency that flooded German municipal offices in late 1914 as coin hoarding stripped retail circulation almost overnight. The Reichsbank had sanctioned such issues to stabilize local commerce, but the actual printing and stamping was handled entirely at the district level, which is why quality and consistency vary sharply across surviving examples.

The official stamp is the sole security measure — no serial numbering, no watermark. Forgery was a real concern with these issues, and some districts later recalled and restamped their notes precisely because unstamped sheets had leaked before authorization.