25 Pfennig Mayen and Andernach

A joint issuance between two neighboring Rhineland towns — Mayen and Andernach — this note is an artifact of the Kleingeldersatz crisis that gripped Germany immediately after the First World War. The defeat, the armistice, and the collapse of the imperial monetary system left municipal authorities scrambling to fill the void left by hoarded and scarce small coin. Towns routinely cut their own deals, and paired issuances like this one were an occasional solution when neither town had the administrative weight to go it alone.

Notgeld of this period was printed in enormous variety and largely unregulated. The 1919 window was brief — by 1920 the Reichsbank was working to suppress municipal issues.