25 Pfennigs

Ballenstedt is a small town in the Harz region of Saxony-Anhalt, historically known as the ancestral seat of the House of Ascania. This Notgeld issue dates to the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in 1920, when coin metal was being hoarded and municipal authorities across the country were authorized — or simply took it upon themselves — to print emergency fractional currency to keep local commerce moving.

The DeNG 1#61.1 reference places this within the standard Serienscheine classification. Ballenstedt's issues from this period are not among the rarer Harz-region pieces, but survival in undamaged condition is uneven; the thin paper stock used by many small municipal printers of this run does not age well.