25 Pfennig, Dorfgemeinde Oppurg, 1921 (the old river bridge)

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. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made in the years when Germany's currency was dying.

Oppurg is a village in Thuringia on the Orla, just below Pössneck, best known for its Wasserschloss - a moated manor-house. Even a village of its size issued a little set of notes, printed at the Tageblatt press in Pössneck and dated "Oppurg, 1. Aug. 1921," signed by Henniger for the Gemeindevorstand. The obverse is shared across the set: a violet sunburst behind the small town arms, with their sun, tree and bridge.

This 25-Pfennig value shows on its reverse the Alte Flußbrücke aus dem 16. Jahrhundert - the old river bridge of the sixteenth century. See the companion notes, the [[notgeld-oppurg-50-pfennig-kirche]], the [[notgeld-oppurg-50-pfennig-tuerkenhof]] and the [[notgeld-oppurg-75-pfennig-schlossturm]].