25 Pfennig

Nordhausen's municipal emergency currency was issued in 1919 during the severe coin shortage that followed Germany's defeat and the economic dislocation of demobilization. The Magistrat — the city's administrative council — was among hundreds of German municipal authorities that filled the vacuum left by an effectively dysfunctional central supply of small change. Faber of Magdeburg handled an enormous volume of this kind of Kleingeldersatz work for municipalities across Saxony and Prussia, which makes the printing unremarkable but the issuing authority's specific financial circumstances worth noting.

Nordhausen was a significant industrial town, home to distilleries and metalworks, with a working population that needed fractional currency daily. That practical pressure, not civic pride, drove the issue.