5 Mark

Wolfenbüttel's 5 Mark Notgeld of 1918 belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency money issued as the German imperial monetary system buckled under wartime strain. Small-denomination Notgeld proliferated that year as silver and copper coinage disappeared from circulation — hoarded, melted, or requisitioned — leaving urban administrations scrambling to fill the gap with locally authorized paper.

The Stadtmagistrat had no printing infrastructure of its own; local commercial printers typically handled these runs, meaning quality control varied and overprinting errors are not uncommon in the series. Short print runs and heavy local use make intact survivors less frequent than their unassuming origins might suggest.