Types / 1918
50 Pfennig, Kreis Erbach im Odenwald, 1918
common
What was happening
This is Kriegsnotgeld, the earlier kind: war emergency money rather than the collectors' issues of 1920-21. Silver and nickel disappeared from circulation within weeks of mobilisation in 1914, and the Reichsbank could not print small notes fast enough to replace it, so towns and districts filled the gap on their own authority and against their own treasuries. These issues look like what they are - functional paper, serially numbered, with a validity tied to a redemption notice rather than a picture on the back.
One of the earliest notes in this batch: November 1918, the month of the armistice and the revolution, issued by the district of Erbach in the Odenwald and redeemable from 1 April 1919 at the earliest.
