25 Pfennig

Koblenz issued this note under the emergency currency provisions that swept German municipal authorities from 1914 onward, as the wartime hoarding of coins — driven largely by the rising intrinsic value of copper and nickel — stripped small change from everyday commerce. The city of Koblenz sat at a strategically critical junction on the Rhine, hosting significant military infrastructure, which only intensified local demand for low-denomination circulating currency that the central banking system could no longer supply reliably.

Municipal Notgeld of this period was printed in enormous quantities and discarded freely once the crisis passed. 1917 issues tend to show heavier circulation wear than the collectible-edition Notgeld that flooded the market after 1920.