20 Pfennig

Kempen am Rhein — now simply Kempen, in the Lower Rhine region of North Rhine-Westphalia — issued this note during the Kleingeldersatz crisis of 1919–1922, when a nationwide coin shortage forced hundreds of German municipalities to print their own low-denomination emergency money. The Reichsbank's inability to supply adequate subsidiary coinage after the war left local governments legally empowered, and practically obligated, to fill the gap themselves.

The watermark is worth noting: most municipal Notgeld at this denomination was printed on plain stock, and its presence here suggests procurement from a commercial stationer with access to security paper rather than a hasty wartime print run.