10 Pfennig

One of the more unusual emergency issues to survive from the First World War, this note was produced by a bookshop — the Swakopmunder Buchhandlung — during the Allied occupation of what had been German South West Africa. By 1916, German South West Africa had already surrendered to South African forces (July 1915), leaving the remaining German civilian population cut off from any normal monetary supply. Local businesses stepped in, printing their own small-denomination Notgeld on whatever materials were at hand.

Linen was the practical choice here — more durable than paper in the coastal humidity of Swakopmund, and available. A bookshop issuing currency is not as strange as it sounds: stationers and printers were among the few civilian enterprises with both the equipment and the materials to produce anything resembling a negotiable instrument.

Pick lists only a handful of Swakopmunder Buchhandlung denominations; the 10 Pfennig is among the smallest.