5 Pfennigs

Gronau an der Leine — not to be confused with the larger Gronau in Westphalia — issued this note under the Magistrat's authority during the acute small-change shortage that gripped German municipalities from 1916 onward. Kleingeldscheine of this type were a purely local stopgap, valid only within the issuing commune and legally dubious under Reich monetary law, yet tolerated by Berlin as long as the denominations stayed low.

Local printing in Gronau kept costs down but quality variable. Paper supply itself was constrained by wartime rationing, and the stock used across this series is notoriously thin and prone to splitting along fold lines.