50 Pfennig, Stadt Kahla, 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.

Kahla lies on the Saale below the Leuchtenburg, a hilltop castle the town turned into a war memorial after 1918. Its 1921 notes were issued in September, expired at the end of December, and are dedicated der Stadt Kahla gewidmet - a gift to the town, which is a curious thing for money to say.

This note shows a facsimile of Hindenburg's own hand: dass Blut aller derer, die im Glauben an das Vaterland ihr Leben hingegeben haben, darf nicht vergebens geflossen sein - the blood of all those who gave their lives believing in the fatherland must not have flowed in vain.