50 Pfennig Kaufmännischer Verein

The Kaufmännischer Verein Oels — the merchants' association of Oels (now Oleśnica, Lower Silesia) — was among hundreds of German commercial and civic bodies that resorted to privately issued Kleingeldersatz in 1920, when severe coin shortages left small transactions nearly impossible. This note is a product of that shortage, not of any banking authority. Grass, Barth & Comp., trading as W. Friedrich in Breslau, handled a significant share of Silesian notgeld production during this period and turned around orders for dozens of local issuers within the same print runs.

Oels was a modest provincial town; its merchants' association had no special monetary standing, which is precisely why these pieces circulated only locally and briefly.