25 Pfennig

Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig is a small village in the Thuringian Forest, and like hundreds of German municipalities during the acute coin shortage of 1917–1923, it issued its own Kleingeldersatz — small-change substitutes — when metal coinage essentially vanished from circulation. These municipal Notgeld issues were printed locally wherever capacity existed; Graphische Werkstätten in nearby Ilmenau handled a number of Thuringian communal commissions during this period.

The 25 Pfennig denomination was among the most practical for everyday transactions, which is precisely why surviving examples tend to show genuine wear rather than the collector-preserved condition common to the more decorative later Serienscheine issued purely for the philatelic trade.