50 Pfennig

Gangelt is a small municipality in the Selfkant district, the westernmost point of Germany, and its 1921 notgeld issue belongs to the enormous wave of locally-printed emergency currency that flooded Germany as coin shortages made small change functionally unavailable. The Prussian Rhine Province municipalities were particularly active issuers — Gangelt among dozens that commissioned their own designs rather than using generic printer stock.

Collector demand drove many 1921 issues as much as economic necessity. By that year, the notgeld market had become semi-commercial, with some municipalities printing in quantities far exceeding local need and selling directly to notgeld collectors through mail order.