50 Pfennig Rudelsburg

Bad Kösen is a small spa town on the Saale in Saxony-Anhalt, and like hundreds of German municipalities it issued emergency paper money — Notgeld — during the acute small-change crisis of 1917–1922. The Rudelsburg, a ruined medieval castle visible from the Saale valley above the town, was a popular subject for regional Notgeld designers, carrying enough local identity to distinguish one town's scrip from another's in a crowded field.

Eduard Giltsch in Jena was a well-regarded regional printer with a solid Notgeld output across Thuringia. Röhrhau's design credit is relatively uncommon for issues of this type — most municipal Notgeld went unsigned.