30 Pfennig, Gemeinde Gross-Flottbek, 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 much of it had become collector's material - Serienscheine, lithographed sets printed far beyond any local need and illustrated with whatever the place was proud of: a legend, a famous son, a local view, a political grievance. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made as Germany's currency was dying.

Gross-Flottbek was a villa suburb west of Altona on the lower Elbe, in Prussian Holstein - since 1937 a quarter of Hamburg. This 30-Pfennig note of 1 August 1921, printed by Langebartels & Juergens of Altona and signed by the Gemeindevorsteher, is one of the Low-German Serienscheine the Holstein communes put out, each face a local scene captioned in Plattdeutsch.

One side shows an Alter Stuhlwagen - an old carriage with people in period dress on a country road; the other the Westlicher Eingang z. Bahnhof, the western approach to the station, with a park and promenade.