50 Pfennig Sparkasse

Arnsberg's municipal savings bank — the Sparkasse — was one of hundreds of German civic institutions forced into emergency currency issuance during the hyperinflationary spiral of the early 1920s. This 50 Pfennig note is Notgeld in the strict sense: a stopgap against the catastrophic small-change shortage that followed the First World War, when hoarding drained silver and copper coins from circulation almost entirely.

W. Neuhaus was a regional printer, and Pöpperling's design credit distinguishes this from the purely utilitarian typeset issues common among smaller municipalities. The watermark is an unusual security provision for a note of this denomination — most Westphalian town Notgeld of 1921 dispensed with it entirely.