Das deutsche Grossnotgeld von 1918 bis 1921

The outbreak of the First World War was accompanied by a shortage of small change coins - owed to the fact that these were often made of high-value materials (gold, silver, etc.) that people wanted to hoard for themselves. Countries, municipalities, cities and companies tried to counter this shortage by putting emergency money into circulation. Since an enormous amount of such money came into circulation until 1923, Dr. Arnold Keller - the author of the first catalogs of German emergency money - made a classification at that time, which still serves as a classification aid today. Large-denomination emergency money became necessary primarily from 1918 onward, and there were three distinct phases of issuance. The first large-denomination bills were needed in the period after the end of World War I, and the large-denomination emergency money from 1918 to 1921. This catalog lists emergency money issues from almost 600 issuing offices throughout the former German Democratic Republic.