50 Pfennigs

Großenhain, a small textile town in Saxony, issued this Notgeld during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the final year of the First World War. Municipal councils across the country were forced to fill the vacuum left by hoarded coins, and Stadtrat zu Großenhain was among hundreds of local authorities producing their own fractional paper — a situation the Reichsbank tolerated out of necessity rather than policy.

The 66 × 46 mm format is notably small even by Kleingeldscheine standards, which frequently complicates authentication since trimming and moisture damage are hard to distinguish at these dimensions.