5 Deutsche Mark

The P#18 five-mark note was the longest-running denomination in the first Bundesbank series, remaining in circulation from 1960 until the early 1980s — an unusual lifespan reflecting both the note's durability and the West German central bank's reluctance to redesign low-denomination paper unnecessarily. Hermann Eidenbenz, the Swiss typographer responsible for the series' visual grammar, brought a disciplined modernist restraint to the designs that was quite deliberately unlike the figurative traditions of Weimar-era German currency.

Bundesdruckerei's printing quality on this series is well-documented, but the P#18 is particularly prone to heavy soiling along the fold lines due to its intensive daily use as the smallest circulating note — fine examples are harder to locate than the scarcity figures suggest.