50 Pfennig Bankverein

Bankverein Putlitz was a small cooperative credit institution — the "e.G.m.b.H." designation marks it as a registered cooperative with limited liability — issuing this note during the acute small-change shortage that followed Germany's post-WWI economic dislocation. Municipal and cooperative Notgeld of this type proliferated in 1920 precisely because Reichsbank coin had been hoarded or melted, and no central authority was moving fast enough to fill the gap.

Selmar Bayer operated out of Berlin SO 36, the Schlesisches Tor district, and handled both design and printing — a small commercial press taking on Notgeld work that larger firms were too busy or too selective to accept.