Starting around World War I something strange began to occur in Germany....small coinage ( and later all coinage ) disappeared. At first it was thought that the Skat players were hoarding all the coins, but more likely it was due to the rise in silver prices.

Anyway as the money flew out of the economy, some form of small denominations was required, and so cities and towns through - out Germany started issuing their own small change coins, which could be redeemed into Riechsmark on demand. Soon it was realized that the same effect could be achieved more inexpensively by issuing small change paper notes. At this time ( around the end of World War I ) people had no thought of collecting these notgeld issues, just staying alive was enough of a challenge. By the end of the War many municipalities were cranking out this 'notgeld' ( meaning 'not money' ), a sort of city- advertising campaign, but calling attention to all sorts of ideas relating to the daily existence of the townsfolk. By 1921 - 1922 the issuance of these were at a crazy rate and it was not until H. Horace Greeley Schacht, put an end to all this madness in 1923, as Commissioner of National Currency, after which no more notgeld was made.

The 100 different notgeld feature such colorful designs as; armored soldiers, farmers, dragons, factories, beer drinkers, coats-of-arms, castles, horses & other animals, machinery, lighthouses, bridges, boats, maps etc.