50 Pfennig

Kranichfeld is a small town in Thuringia, and like hundreds of German municipalities during the Kleingeldnot of 1917–1921, it issued its own emergency fractional currency when the central supply of coins collapsed under wartime metal shortages. These Notgeld issues were a local administrative decision, not a banking one — the Bürgermeister's office effectively became the issuing authority by necessity.

Thuringian municipal Notgeld of this period is common in bulk but surprisingly variable in survival quality, as much of it circulated hard in small-town retail before redemption schemes pulled it back.