20 Pfennig

Norderdithmarschen is the northern half of the old Dithmarschen region on the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein — a district that, like hundreds of German administrative bodies, found itself scrambling for small-denomination emergency notes (Kleingeldscheine) after metal coinage disappeared from circulation during the First World War. The Reichsbank and imperial treasury never adequately replaced it, leaving Kreise, municipalities, and even individual businesses to fill the gap themselves.

Printing locally through Dithmarschen Verlag in Büsum kept costs low and turnaround fast. Büsum was a small fishing and resort town — not an obvious center of printing — which is precisely why notes from this issuer turn up in far fewer collections than Notgeld from larger regional hubs.