50 Pfennig, Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, 1921

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. Alongside the decorative collector Serienscheine of the inflation years, town treasuries and municipal savings banks went on printing plain small-change notes for everyday use.

This is one of them: a 50-Pfennig note of the Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, the municipal savings bank of the Westphalian linen town, dated "Bielefeld, 15. Mai 1921." It undertakes to pay the bearer against the local draft out of the city's account. Bielefeld became one of the most prolific and celebrated Notgeld issuers of all, famous above all for the linen and silk Stoffgeld of its 700th-anniversary jubilee the same year (see [[notgeld-bielefeld-25-mark-stoffgeld]]); this is the working municipal currency beside it.

The obverse is built around a red diamond bearing "50 Pf," ringed by six blue circular vignettes - among them a rooster, town buildings, anchors and the savings-bank monogram - over the promise "zahle gegen diese Platzanweisung aus unserm Guthaben an Überbringer, Magistrat." The reverse carries a matching ornamental design of several small vignettes.