5 Mark

Belgard — now Białogard in northwestern Poland — was a mid-sized Pomeranian town whose municipal savings bank issued this note as part of Germany's massive Notgeld wave of 1918, when the wartime coin shortage had become acute enough that even small-town institutions were authorised to fill the gap. The Sparkasse der Stadt Belgard was not a commercial bank but a civic savings institution, which makes its role as emergency currency issuer administratively unusual — though not unprecedented for Prussian municipalities of that period.

The sole security feature is an official stamp, which on Pomeranian Notgeld of this type was frequently applied inconsistently, leading to known variations in stamp placement and ink color within the same issue run.