50 Pfennig

Katzhütte is a small industrial village in the Schwarza valley, known primarily for its glassworks. This note belongs to the vast wave of Kleingeldersatz — small-change substitutes — issued by German municipalities between 1916 and 1922 to compensate for the disappearance of metal coinage, hoarded by a public watching the war economy deteriorate in real time.

Municipal Notgeld from villages this small rarely survived in quantity. Katzhütte's total population was modest enough that original print runs were likely limited, and redemption periods were short — most Gemeinde-level issues were recalled and cancelled within a year or two of the stabilization measures of 1923.