20 Pfennig Meyer Kauffmann Textilwerke

Meyer Kauffmann Textilwerke A.-G. was a large textile manufacturer based in Lennep, in the Rhineland, and this 20 Pfennig note is a piece of Notgeld — the emergency scrip that flooded Germany between roughly 1916 and 1922 as coin shortages made small-denomination transactions nearly impossible. Industrial firms, municipalities, and even individual shops issued their own paper in these years, creating a patchwork monetary system that the Reichsbank tolerated out of necessity rather than policy.

Company-issued Notgeld of this type was redeemable only within the issuing firm's own sphere — typically at the factory store or against wages — which kept it circulating locally and rarely traveling far.