25 Pfennig Kreis-Handwerkerbund

Stolzenau an der Weser is a small market town in Lower Saxony, and the Kreis-Handwerkerbund — the district craftsmen's association — was precisely the kind of regional trades body that stepped in during the 1921 small-change famine to keep local commerce functional. The Reichsbank simply could not mint and distribute subsidiary coinage fast enough to meet demand in the inflationary spiral following the war, so chambers, guilds, municipalities, and savings cooperatives across Germany printed their own emergency fractional notes. This one was backed, nominally, by the Spar- und Creditbank G.m.b.H. attached to the association.

The watermark is unusual for notgeld of this denomination — most 25-Pfennig issues at this level skipped security features entirely.