25 Pfennig

Hofgeismar lies in northern Hesse, and its Kreissparkasse — a district savings institution rather than a municipal or state bank — was among the thousands of local German authorities forced to produce their own emergency fractional currency as the postwar inflation of the early 1920s drove coins out of circulation entirely. Gebrüder Gotthelft in Cassel was a regional workhorse printer for this kind of Notgeld, producing large runs for multiple Hessian issuers during the same period, which means this note shares a production lineage with dozens of similar district pieces from the same press.

The watermark is notable — many Kleinnotgeld of this value dispensed with security features altogether.