50 Mark H. Heye Glasfabrik Schauenstein

H. Heye Glasfabrik was a major German glassworks operating in Schauenstein in Upper Franconia, and this 50 Mark note is a product of the Notgeld emergency currency wave that flooded Germany in 1922 as hyperinflation made Reichsbank notes increasingly inadequate for everyday wage payments. Large industrial employers frequently issued their own scrip to pay workers when small-denomination official currency simply could not be sourced in sufficient quantity. Alsemann in Obernkirchen was a regional printer that handled a number of such commissions for Lower Saxon and Franconian firms during this period.

The official stamp serves as the sole security measure — thin protection, but sufficient when the issuer's local authority and recognizability were the real guarantee of acceptance.