50 Pfennig Wachsenburg-Komitee

Wachsenburg-Komitee Gotha issued this note as part of the broader German Notgeld phenomenon, but the specific issuing body is worth a moment's attention: the Komitee was a civic association tied to the Wachsenburg, one of the three hilltop castles of the Drei Gleichen group in Thuringia. Local cultural organizations, tourist associations, and monument committees frequently issued Notgeld in 1921 not out of monetary necessity — the acute shortage emergency of 1918–1919 had largely passed — but as deliberate collectibles sold to the growing market of Notgeld enthusiasts. Otto Böttner of Arnstadt printed extensively for Thuringian issuers during this period.