25 Pfennig

Crefeld — now spelled Krefeld — was one of the Rhineland's major textile centers, and its municipal government issued notgeld during the early 1920s inflationary period when small-denomination Reichsmark coinage had effectively disappeared from circulation. The city's Oberbürgermeister, Dr. Johansen, signed this issue in his official capacity, giving it legal standing as emergency municipal currency rather than the decorative collector notgeld being produced speculatively elsewhere at the same time.

The distinction matters. By 1921, German municipalities were increasingly aware that collectors were hoarding notgeld rather than spending it, and some issuers were printing specifically to exploit that market. A plain signed municipal issue from a major industrial city like Crefeld sits closer to the functional end of that spectrum.