50 Pfennigs

Ennigerloh, a small agricultural town in Westphalia, issued this Notgeld during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar inflation spiral — municipal authorities across the country were legally permitted to issue small-denomination emergency currency when Reichsbank coin supplies dried up. The W. Girardet firm in Essen, better known as a newspaper and commercial printing house, handled a substantial volume of Westphalian municipal Notgeld during this period, which accounts for the relatively consistent production quality across notes from otherwise obscure issuing bodies.

The watermarked paper is worth noting — many Notgeld issues at this denomination cut costs by omitting security paper entirely.