5 Mark

Bad Berka is a small spa town in Thuringia, and its municipal authority — like hundreds of German townships in late 1918 — issued its own emergency paper when coin shortages became unmanageable in the final year of the war. These Stadtgemeinde notes occupied a legal grey zone: not sanctioned Reichsbank currency, but tolerated out of practical necessity.

The 5 Mark denomination is on the larger end for municipal Notgeld of this period, which typically clustered around Pfennig values. That alone suggests this was issued to cover transactions the smaller denominations couldn't handle as the economy deteriorated through the armistice months.