This piece belongs to the vast wave of German notgeld issued as the Reichsmark collapsed in 1923 — a collapse so total that by November of that year a single US dollar exchanged for over four trillion marks. Provincial and municipal authorities across Germany printed and struck emergency currency simply to pay wages, often in denominations that doubled or tripled within days of issue. Westphalia's choice to honor Freiherr vom Stein — the Prussian reformer who dismantled serfdom and restructured municipal governance after Napoleon's humiliations — carried obvious political charge in a moment of renewed national crisis.
The Funck references distinguish between 12A and 12B variants, likely reflecting differences in the depth or application of the gold plating run.
This piece belongs to the vast wave of German notgeld issued as the Reichsmark collapsed in 1923 — a collapse so total that by November of that year a single US dollar exchanged for over four trillion marks. Provincial and municipal authorities across Germany printed and struck emergency currency simply to pay wages, often in denominations that doubled or tripled within days of issue. Westphalia's choice to honor Freiherr vom Stein — the Prussian reformer who dismantled serfdom and restructured municipal governance after Napoleon's humiliations — carried obvious political charge in a moment of renewed national crisis.
The Funck references distinguish between 12A and 12B variants, likely reflecting differences in the depth or application of the gold plating run.