50 Pfennig

Osterfeld was a small industrial town in the Ruhr — coal mines, ironworks, a working population with no patience for a currency shortage. This note is Notgeld in the strictest sense: issued because small-denomination Reichsmark coinage had effectively vanished from circulation by 1921, hoarded or melted, and municipalities were left to paper over the gap themselves. Jänecke in Hannover handled an enormous volume of such commissions across this period, which kept quality consistent even for minor issuers.

Josef Dominicus of Paderborn designed the series — a regional commercial artist rather than a specialist printmaker, which was typical of how these contracts were placed.