50 Pfennig

Roda bei Ilmenau was a small Thuringian commune whose notgeld issue was designed by Max Bechstein of Ilmenau — almost certainly a local commercial artist rather than the more famous painter Max Beckmann, despite the superficial similarity of names. The printer, Wiedemannsche Druckerei AG in Saalfeld, handled notgeld contracts for numerous Thuringian municipalities during the 1921 small-change shortage, when coin hoarding and metal scarcity left ordinary transactions nearly impossible.

The single known signature variant, attributed to a "Hertzer," suggests limited administrative complexity in the issuing authority — consistent with a rural commune managing a modest, short-lived emission.