25 Pfennig, Neustadt in Holstein, 1921 (partition of Schleswig)

Notgeld ("emergency money") began in 1914 out of necessity but by 1920-21 had become a collector craze: towns issued lithographed Serienscheine far beyond any local need and sold them to collectors for real marks. Neustadt in Holstein, a small Baltic harbour town on the Lübeck Bay, used its series to make a political point.

The whole Neustadt set is a patriotic Schleswig-Holstein commentary on the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, which under the Treaty of Versailles let the population of the old duchy vote on the Danish-German border and transferred North Schleswig to Denmark. This 25 Pfennig value joins the town's other patriotic notes: [[notgeld-neustadt-holstein-25-pfennig]] (the "Up ewig ungedeelt" / Christian I note), [[notgeld-neustadt-holstein-25-pfennig-patriot]] (the satirical "patriot" boy) and [[notgeld-neustadt-holstein-50-pfennig]].

The front shows two soldiers struggling over a map of Schleswig - Flensburg, Apenrade, Tondern and the other disputed towns marked on it - captioned Schleswigs Sträuben gegen gewaltsame Teilung ("Schleswig's resistance to forcible partition"), Sinnbild der Treue ("emblem of loyalty") and Abtrennung Nord-Schleswigs 1920 ("the separation of North Schleswig, 1920"). The back shows the Jungfernstieg avenue under the line Gedenke, daß du ein Deutscher bist ("Remember that you are a German"). It was valid until 31 July 1921 and signed by Bürgermeister Rehr and Stadtverordnetenvorsteher Ehlers.