Ballenstedt, a small Harz resort town under the Duchy of Anhalt, issued this Notgeld during the severe small-change shortage that followed World War I. Municipal authorities across Germany were authorized — or simply pushed by necessity — to print their own fractional currency when Reichsbank coin and low-denomination paper failed to reach local circulation in adequate quantities. Ballenstedt's issue is among the more modest of the 1920 wave, carrying a watermark that distinguishes the 61.2 variety from the otherwise nearly identical 61.1.
Ballenstedt, a small Harz resort town under the Duchy of Anhalt, issued this Notgeld during the severe small-change shortage that followed World War I. Municipal authorities across Germany were authorized — or simply pushed by necessity — to print their own fractional currency when Reichsbank coin and low-denomination paper failed to reach local circulation in adequate quantities. Ballenstedt's issue is among the more modest of the 1920 wave, carrying a watermark that distinguishes the 61.2 variety from the otherwise nearly identical 61.1.