50 Pfennig Braunschweigische Staatsbank

The Braunschweigische Staatsbank was a regional state bank — not a commercial institution — that had operated since the late eighteenth century under the successive administrations governing the Duchy, later Free State, of Brunswick. The 1921 Pfennig notgeld emissions came out of sheer necessity: the Reichsbank's inability to supply adequate small-denomination coinage during the postwar inflationary spiral forced dozens of regional and municipal issuers to paper over the gap themselves.

Appelhans was a well-established Braunschweig printing house, not a specialist security printer, which is worth noting when assessing print quality on surviving examples.