50 Pfennig

Hamelin's 1922 emergency currency — Notgeld, issued to alleviate the chronic small-denomination coin shortage that persisted well into the Weimar years — was among the more commercially self-aware of the genre. Dozens of German municipalities treated Notgeld as a revenue stream, producing attractive series that collectors would purchase and never redeem, leaving the issuing city with pure profit. Hamelin was particularly well-positioned for this: the Pied Piper legend gave local authorities a ready-made design vocabulary that sold.

Appelhans in Braunschweig handled a substantial volume of municipal Notgeld printing during this period, supplying notes across Lower Saxony.