50 Pfennig

Hoym is a small town in Anhalt that issued this note during the Kleingeldersatz crisis of the early 1920s, when chronic coin shortages forced hundreds of German municipalities to print their own fractional currency. The Louis Koch printing house in Halberstadt was a regional workhorse for exactly this kind of municipal job — small runs, local accounts, fast turnaround — and handled notgeld commissions for numerous Anhalt and Prussian communities during this period.

Duckstein's signature as Magistrat authenticates it under the issuing authority of the town council rather than any banking institution. Redemption of Hoym's notgeld was theoretically guaranteed by municipal funds, a promise that grew increasingly hollow as inflation accelerated through 1922 and into 1923.