25 Pfennigs

Bochum's municipal savings bank issued this Notgeld piece in 1917, when the Reichsbank's coin requisition drives had stripped small-denomination coinage from everyday commerce almost entirely. Municipalities, utilities, and local businesses across Germany filled the gap themselves — the result was thousands of distinct small-value paper issues, each legally valid only within the issuing jurisdiction.

The watermark is worth noting: most Notgeld of this period used whatever paper stock was available, and a watermarked sheet suggests either advance planning or access to quality paper that many comparable issuers simply lacked in the middle years of the war.