2 Pfennig

Passau's wartime Kleingeldersatz notes were issued to address the acute small-coin shortage that gripped German municipalities from 1916 onward, as the Reichsbank's metal stocks were diverted to the war effort. City-issued paper Pfennig denominations of this kind were produced in enormous variety — virtually every German town of any size printed its own — but the square format seen in some Passau issues is among the more distinctive local choices, a practical concession to fitting minimal text onto minimal paper.

Notgeld of this denomination was rarely saved at the time; most were spent and destroyed quickly, which works in favor of surviving specimens today.