50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Ennigerloh, 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.

By 1920 it had become something else. The shortage was easing but the collector market was not, and a town could take real marks for paper it hoped would never be presented. So the municipalities 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 joke in dialect. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made by places with a few thousand inhabitants, in the years when Germany's currency was dying.

Ennigerloh in the Münsterland issued this in June 1921, and its reverse is about food. A row of turnips hangs across the top; below, a long table of people eating; at the right, three jars labelled MARMELADE. The caption imagines the future: einst werden Kindeskinder sagen - wir haben uns durchgeschlagen - one day our grandchildren will say we got through it.