5 Mark - Münsterberg

Münsterberg issued this porcelain notgeld piece during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's post-WWI economic collapse, when municipalities across Silesia resorted to ceramic currency produced primarily by Meissen and a handful of smaller regional kilns. Porcelain pieces of this period were as much civic propaganda as functional money — towns competed on design quality, and many were hoarded by collectors from the moment of issue, which explains why brown-glaze examples survive in far better condition than their paper counterparts from the same emergency issues.