25 Pfennig Stadtsparkasse

Bielefeld's municipal savings bank issued this note in 1917 as emergency small change — Kleingeldersatz — at a moment when metal coinage had been systematically stripped from circulation to feed wartime industrial demand. The Reichsbank had effectively abandoned the lower denominations, and municipalities across Germany were left to paper over the gap themselves.

Stadtsparkasse Bielefeld was among hundreds of local issuers doing the same thing that year, which makes individual attribution to a specific printer within the city difficult. Survival rates for these low-denomination wartime Notgeld issues vary enormously; the 25 Pfennig face value meant these passed through many hands quickly.