5 Pfennig

Kahla is a small Thuringian town on the Saale River, best known later as the site of the Porzellanfabrik Kahla — the same manufacturer that would supply much of the GDR's ceramic output for decades. In 1920, however, the town was dealing with the acute small-change shortage that drove hundreds of German municipalities to issue their own Kleingeldersatz. The Stadtrat's authorisation of this note was purely practical: copper and nickel coins had largely vanished from circulation, hoarded or melted during and after the war.

The "a" variant designation within the Grabowski listing typically reflects a paper stock or overprint distinction within what was otherwise a single issue run.