50 Pfennig

Nördlingen's municipal emergency money — Kriegsnotgeld — emerged from the same supply crisis that forced hundreds of German towns to print their own fractional notes when coin metal was diverted to the war effort. The Stadtmagistrat, the city's administrative council, had direct authority to issue these notes under wartime necessity provisions, which is why so many German small-denomination notes of 1917–1918 bear municipal rather than banking authority.

The watermark is notable for notgeld of this level — many comparable municipal issues skipped security features entirely, printing on whatever paper stock was available. Its presence here suggests the Stadtmagistrat drew on better-quality paper reserves, possibly pre-war stock.