50 Pfennig

Bad Kreuznach's 1917 50 Pfennig Notgeld belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency issues that flooded Germany after the Reichsbank suspended convertibility and small coin effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or swallowed by wartime production demands. Cities and towns were left to paper over the gap themselves, with minimal central oversight on design or quantity.

The print run of over twelve million pieces is notably high for a single municipal issuer of this size, suggesting the notes circulated well beyond the city itself — a common outcome when neighboring communities lacked their own issues.