5 Pfennig

Ballenstedt is a small town in the Harz region of what was then the Prussian province of Saxony. This note belongs to the vast wave of municipal Kleingeldscheine issued across Germany in 1920, when chronic coin shortages — partly a result of metal hoarding and wartime disruption — forced local authorities to produce their own low-denomination emergency currency. The Magistrat had no printing infrastructure of its own; such notes were typically commissioned from regional printers in small runs, making survival rates unpredictable.

At 5 Pfennig, this is among the lowest denominations issued under the Notgeld system — essentially bus-fare money, produced out of administrative necessity rather than any monetary ambition.