50 Pfennig

Altenburg's city council turned to an unusual source for this emergency scrip: the Spielkartenfabrik A.G., a playing card manufacturer. The firm had the color printing infrastructure that most local printers lacked, which made it a logical choice during the postwar Notgeld boom when municipal authorities across Germany were issuing their own small-denomination notes to compensate for a chronic shortage of Reich coinage.

Altenburg has been the historical center of German playing card production since the 18th century, and the Spielkartenfabrik remained the town's dominant printing enterprise well into the 20th century. The relationship between issuer and printer here was entirely local — no outside contractor involved.