50 Pfennig

Neustadt am Rübenberge is a small town in the Hannover region, and this 50 Pfennig note is a product of the Kleingeldersatz emergency — the post-WWI coin shortage that pushed hundreds of German municipalities into issuing their own fractional paper currency. By 1921 the Reichsbank had largely stabilized coin supply, but many smaller localities continued issuing Notgeld well past necessity, partly because local printers and civic boosters had discovered collectors were buying them. Whether this example was genuinely spent at a market stall or printed primarily for the philatelic trade is a question the note itself cannot answer.