25 Pfennig Kurhaus Gesundbrunnen

Bad Helmstedt's spa economy ran on small change, and during the Weimar-era notgeld crisis local businesses issued their own emergency scrip rather than turn away customers. Kurhaus Gesundbrunnen — the mineral spring bathhouse operated by Max Herbst — was precisely the kind of establishment that depended on low-denomination transactions: entry fees, mineral water, small treatments. Ruthe & Günther, a local Helmstedt printer, handled production, which kept costs down but also meant these circulated almost entirely within a tight geographic radius.

Survival rates for spa-town notgeld of this type are uneven — some issues were deliberately collected as novelties from the outset, inflating apparent supply, while purely utilitarian pieces that actually circulated were often destroyed or lost.