50 Pfennig, Stadt Kahla, 1921 (Anbetung der Hirten)

Notgeld began in 1914 out of necessity: coin vanished into hoards within weeks of mobilisation and towns printed their own small change because the Reichsbank could not supply enough.

By 1920 it had become something else. The shortage was easing but the collector market was not, and an issuer could take real marks for paper it hoped would never be presented. So towns, firms and clubs commissioned Serienscheine: lithographed sets, printed far beyond any local need, illustrated with whatever the place was proud of - a legend, a famous son, a battle, a trade, a joke in dialect. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made in the years when Germany's currency was dying.

Kahla is a porcelain town on the Saale in the old duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg - the "S.-A." on its notes - below the Leuchtenburg, a hilltop castle the town and the surrounding Land Altenburg were turning into a war memorial after 1918. In 1921 Kahla and the private bodies around it put out one of the richest Notgeld programs in Thuringia: municipal Gutscheine in several themed sets, the castle inn's own vouchers, a chess congress and a sports tournament. The whole output is catalogued together under Grabowski and Mehl number 668, and nearly every note pairs a common value side with a different picture on the back.

These are the town's Christmas notes, dated Kahla 20 November 1921 and valid to 31 December, a set drawn by the artist Glass: a shared value side - a black 50 on an orange starburst between two lit Advent candles and fir - with a different Nativity picture on each back.

This note's back is the Adoration of the Shepherds: Mary kneels over the child in the straw while the shepherds crowd in with a basket and their flock, a palm and a shaft of light behind.