50 Pfennig

Zeulenroda's 1916 notgeld issue belongs to the earliest wave of German municipal emergency money, predating the better-known inflationary flood of 1921–1923 by half a year. The wartime drain on metal coinage — copper, nickel, and silver all diverted to military procurement — forced hundreds of small German towns to print their own fractional substitutes, with authorization grudgingly permitted by local authorities.

The embossed seal was the issuing commune's primary hedge against counterfeiting, a practical choice when printing resources were limited. Reuss-Obergreiz itself ceased to exist as a political entity in 1918 when the ruling Reuss dynasty abdicated, folding into the short-lived People's State of Reuss.