1/2 Mark Nied, Hilfskommission

Nied am Main was a small industrial suburb on the western edge of Frankfurt, absorbed into the city proper in 1910. Hilfskommissionen — local relief committees — emerged across Germany during the acute small-change shortage of the early 1920s, issuing Notgeld in denominations that commercial banks and municipalities often ignored. Cardboard was the typical emergency substrate at this scale: cheap, quick to produce locally, and easier to invalidate than printed paper.

The issuer is poorly documented. No redemption records for this Hilfskommission have surfaced in the major Notgeld catalogs, which raises the question of whether holders were ever formally reimbursed.