50 Pfennigs

Freienohl is a small village on the Ruhr river in the Sauerland — the kind of place that would never appear in a currency catalog under ordinary circumstances. This note exists because of the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany from around 1916 onward, as metal coinage disappeared from circulation and the Reichsbank failed to fill the gap quickly enough. Municipal treasuries, local businesses, and even individual employers were left to print their own fractional paper — Notgeld in the strict wartime sense, distinct from the decorative collector issues that followed in the early 1920s.

The Gemeindekasse (municipal cashier's office) rather than a commercial issuer is notable; this came directly from local government authority, not private improvisation.