25 Pfennig Henschel and Sohn

Henschel & Sohn in Hattingen was a steelworks and rolling mill operation — unrelated to the more famous Henschel locomotive manufacturer in Kassel despite sharing a name. This note is Notgeld, issued during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany from roughly 1916 onward, when metal coins were systematically withdrawn from circulation for wartime industrial use. Private employers, municipalities, and cooperatives all filled the gap with their own printed scrip, redeemable only within their own sphere of influence.

Factory-issued Notgeld of this type was typically redeemable at the company store or wage office, which kept most pieces from straying far — limiting survival rates for genuinely circulated examples.