50 Marks

The Kaiserliches Gouvernement von Kamerun issued this note in August 1914, within weeks of the outbreak of war in Europe. Cut off from Germany by British and French naval blockades, the colonial administration in Duala faced an immediate liquidity crisis — metropolitan currency could not reach the colony, and trade had to continue. These emergency treasury notes were the improvised answer.

The entire series was short-lived. Anglo-French forces invaded Kamerun in August 1914 and completed the conquest by February 1916. Notes that weren't destroyed in the retreat were largely invalidated under the subsequent French and British partition. Survivors are scarce precisely because the issuing administration ceased to exist so quickly after printing.