50 Pfennig

This is Notgeld — emergency municipal scrip issued by the city of Neumarkt in Lower Silesia during the acute coin shortage that followed the First World War. Grass, Barth & Comp., trading under the W. Friedrich imprint in Breslau, were prolific suppliers of Notgeld to Silesian municipalities throughout 1920 and handled both design and print runs for dozens of towns in the region. The volume they produced means the press quality is generally consistent, though the short intended circulation life of most Notgeld issues kept many examples in better condition than their wartime counterparts.

Neumarkt itself was still firmly German administrative territory in 1920, though the broader fate of Silesia was then being decided by the League of Nations plebiscite process that culminated in the 1921 partition.