25 Pfennig, Kreis Wittlich, 1919

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.

Wittlich is a small wine town on the Lieser in the Eifel, west of the Mosel, the seat of a Prussian Landkreis in the Rhine Province. This 25-Pfennig note is a district Verkehrsausgabe of 15 September 1919, issued by the Kreisausschuss and taken in payment through the Kreiskommunalkasse until three months after public notice in the Wittlicher Kreisblatt.

The face carries the district arms - a crowned shield with two crossed keys in a field of vines, for the Eifel wine country - and the back an oval view of Abtei Himmerod, the Cistercian abbey in the forest north of the town.