50 Pfennig

Meiningen's status as a ducal residence — seat of the Saxe-Meiningen court — gave its municipal authority a degree of administrative self-confidence unusual for a small German city, and that probably explains the embossed magistrate seal pressed into this note rather than a simple printed facsimile. Most Notgeld of this early 1917 vintage relied entirely on ink for authentication; the physical seal was a deliberate assertion of official weight.

This note predates the flood of decorative Notgeld that collectors now associate with the Weimar period. It was made to spend, not to keep.