5 Mark overprint on 25 Pfennig

Düren's municipal administration resorted to overprinting existing 25 Pfennig Notgeld stock with a 5 Mark value in 1917 — a stopgap born from the acute small-denomination coin shortage that plagued German towns throughout the middle war years. The Reichsbank had effectively stopped releasing silver and nickel coinage into circulation, forcing hundreds of municipalities to improvise their own emergency instruments. Overprinting lower-denomination notes rather than commissioning new print runs was the cheaper, faster option, and Düren was far from alone in doing it.

The threefold denomination jump makes this a particularly blunt example of wartime fiscal improvisation. Merkelbach lists three varieties under references 24–26, distinguished by minor typographic or overprint differences.