25 Pfennig, Stadt Freiburg in Schlesien, 1921 (craftsmen)

By 1921 Notgeld had turned from wartime necessity into a collectors' market. Coin had vanished into hoards in 1914 and towns printed their own small change to replace it, but with the shortage easing an issuer could still take real marks for paper it hoped would never be redeemed. Towns, firms and clubs commissioned lithographed Serienscheine - sets printed far beyond local need and illustrated with whatever a place was proud of.

Freiburg in Schlesien - today Świebodzice in south-western Poland - is a small Lower Silesian town below the wooded heights of Schloss Fürstenstein (Książ), the great seat of the Hochberg family. It had held town rights since the 13th century and became a cloth and linen town: a large linen and cloth factory opened here in 1809 and at its height employed well over a thousand hands, and clock-making and other trades followed in the 19th century. The town issued a September 1921 set of 25- and 50-Pfennig notes printed by Grube & Schneider of Freiburg. Its sister notes are [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-25-pfennig-stadtansicht]], [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-25-pfennig-brand]] and [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-25-pfennig-weber]].

This 25-Pfennig note carries a pictorial front of three green panels showing craftsmen and workers at their trades - a salute to the working life of a town that had long earned its living by the loom and the workshop.