Notgeld Coins

On these pages you will find an ever growing catalog of Notgeld Coinage and brief information pertaining to each coin such as country, city, town, person or theme depicted on the coin. Notgeld is a term used for the wide variety of mostly German or Austrian emergency money issued by local governments or businesses during wartime and other crisis. Although notgeld was issued over a wider time span, most coins on these pages were minted between 1914-1923. These interesting footnotes in numismatic history were produced at the local level by cities, towns, businesses and organizations to fill the need for currency not being met by the government. They were issued for the lowest denominations to the ridiculously high denominations produced during hyperinflation. Their practical use was limited, many were minted or printed to be sold and collected much like one would baseball cards. there are thousands of varieties with wide ranging, artistic, social and political themes using mostly alternative material such as iron, zinc, porcelain, paper, leather, aluminum foil, and cloth.

More than 20 private minting firms have been reported as having struck notgeld, the vast majority were struck by L. Christian Lauer, Kugel and Fink, Heinrich Arld, Carl Poellath, Wilhelm Meyer and Franz Wilhelm, B.H. Mayer, and C. Balmberger.

In many cases, the reverse of the piece carried the value and the obverse carried the name of the town and coat of arms. Thus, it was required to only make a die for each new obverse and use a standardized dies for the reverse.

Notgeld Search Feature


1920 German - Aachen / 10 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 1.1	1920 German - Aachen / 1 Ocher Grosche Coin / Iron / L - 1.3	1920 German - Aachen / 25 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 1.6


1920 German - Aachen / 50 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 1.7	1917 German - Bensheim / 50 Pfennig Coin / Zinc / L - 34.4	1917 German - Bielefeld / 5 Pfennig Coin / Zinc / L - 40.1


1923 German - Bielefeld / 1 Gold Mark Coin / Gilded Bronze / L - 40.5	ND German - Boldixum / 50 Pfennig Coin / Red-Brown Porcelain Stoneware	1918 German - Braunschweig / 10 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 54.2


No Date German - Büdingen (the area) / 10 Pfennig Coin / Zinc / L - 61.1	1919 German - Stadt Cassel / 10 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 75.5	1920 German - Stadt Coblenz / 10 Pfennig Coin / Iron / F - 80.3


1921 German - Stadt Coblenz / 25 Pfennig Coin / Iron / F -80.4	1917 German - Stadt Duren / 10 Pfennig Coin / Zinc / L - 101.4	1918 German - Stadt Duren / 10 Pfennig Coin / Iron / L - 101.8