20 Mark Herzogliche Sparkasse

The Herzoglich Braunschweigische Sparkasse — a savings institution rather than a commercial or state bank — entered emergency currency issue late in the First World War when chronic coin shortages and the collapse of normal monetary channels forced institutions well outside the traditional note-issuing establishment to fill the gap. This note is Notgeld in the fullest sense: a local stopgap, not a formal banking instrument.

The duchy itself had ceased to exist as a sovereign entity in 1918, absorbed into the new Free State of Brunswick following the November Revolution. A savings bank issuing 20-Mark notes under a ducal title while that duke was being deposed gives this piece an inadvertently commemorative quality that was certainly unintentional.