1 Mark, Hamburger Warte, 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 note could be printed for no purpose but to be bought - here, for charity. This is a Gutschein der Hamburger Warte, a voucher issued by the Hamburg magazine Hamburger Warte (of the publisher Friedrich Carl Holtz, 1882-1939) for the benefit of war widows and war orphans. It is dated "Hamburg, 1. Juli 1921," signed Hoffmann, and was redeemable at the Bank für Handel und Industrie, Filiale Hamburg, until 31 December 1921.

The obverse shows a watchtower (Warte) flying a flag - a pun on the magazine's name - with the verse read on the note: "Für Kriegerwitwen und Kriegerwaisen soll'n diese Scheine die Welt bereisen; nun kauft davon, soviel ihr wollt, es wird sich wandeln in lauteres Gold!" - roughly "For soldiers' widows and orphans these notes shall travel the world; now buy as many as you will, and it will turn to pure gold." The reverse carries a harvest scene and its answering verse, read as "...sie ruhen als Saat im Schoße der Erden, zur Ernte der Garben sie reifen werden!" - the fallen "rest as seed in the lap of the earth, to ripen for the harvest of sheaves," the common consoling image of the war dead as a buried seed-corn.