50 Pfennig

Zerbst, a small Anhalt town best known as the birthplace of Catherine the Great, issued this Notgeld note during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar economic dislocation. Municipal authorities across the country were printing their own fractional currency by 1921, and the Magistrat der Stadt Zerbst was no exception — thousands of such local issues appeared between 1919 and 1922, most redeemed and destroyed within months.

Louis Koch of Halberstadt was a regional printer responsible for a significant number of Anhalt-area Notgeld issues, which gives this piece a certain provincial coherence. The 1469.2A series reference suggests multiple distinct printings within a single issuing run.