5 Mark Staatskassenschein

The Duchy of Brunswick had been without a reigning duke since 1884, when the Hanoverian succession dispute left the throne vacant and the state governed by Prussian-appointed regents. By 1918, that same administration was scrambling to issue emergency currency as the imperial financial system buckled under wartime strain. The Finanzkollegium's Leihaussachen division — essentially a pawnbroking and loan office — was an unusual vehicle for currency issuance, reflecting how far outside normal banking channels these Notgeld emissions were pushed.

The watermarked paper distinguishes this from the purely utilitarian cardboard Notgeld flooding Germany at the same moment.