20 Pfennig

Kempen am Rhein — now simply Kempen, in the Lower Rhine region of North Rhine-Westphalia — issued this note as part of the vast German Kleingeldersatz phenomenon of the early Weimar period, when chronic coin shortages forced hundreds of municipalities to print their own fractional paper currency. By 1920 the federal government had largely lost control of small-denomination circulation, and cities like Kempen stepped in by necessity rather than ambition.

The watermark is worth noting — most municipal Notgeld at this denomination and date dispensed with security features entirely, making watermarked examples a relative anomaly at the Pfennig level.