75 Pfennig

Kempen's 1920 Kleingeldscheine program was a direct response to the acute coin shortage that gripped Germany in the immediate postwar years — municipal and corporate issuers flooded the country with small-denomination notgeld to fill the gap left by hoarded or melted metal currency. The watermark on this issue is notable for notgeld of this size and ambition; many comparable municipal issues from the same period dispensed with security features entirely.

Kempen am Rhein — today known simply as Kempen in North Rhine-Westphalia — was under Allied occupation at the time of issue, the Rhineland having been placed under inter-Allied administration following the Armistice.