bavarikon4UNotgeld of the European states
Notgeld (emergency money) is issued in times of economic crisis. It is intended to address the shortage of legal tender coins and banknotes. Moreover, emergency money is a means of payment that is limited in terms of time and region. It is only valid within a certain place or district and for a certain period of time.
Europe has seen various issues of emergency money over the years, mostly related to wars, but with other causes as well. In Austria, shattered state finances, high war costs and the revolution of 1848/49 led to a shortage of coins. Municipalities and businesses helped themselves by issuing emergency banknotes. Another period that saw the issue of emergency money followed during the First World War. Here, too, there was a lack of coinage at first, which was followed by inflation from 1918. The State Office of Finance therefore allowed the issue of emergency money, but under certain conditions. Not only cities, municipalities and companies, but also the federal states themselves issued emergency money.
A shortage of coins also became a problem in other European states during the First World War. Numerous municipalities and companies therefore issued emergency money, for example in France, the Netherlands or Portugal. A special feature of Portuguese emergency money is that many notes were issued by churches and charitable organisations.
Since the shortage of small change had not yet been solved by the end of the First World War, the emergency money issues continued into the 1920s. This also affected the independent Principality of Monaco, as there was a kind of monetary union with France. This led the Principality to issue emergency banknotes in 1920. In 1922, the Chamber of Commerce of the Memel region issued emergency banknotes similar in design to the collector’s series banknotes. Collector’s series banknotes were not in use as means of payment, but were sold to paper money collectors. It is uncertain whether the emergency banknotes circulated in the Memel region for daily payments.
In the Second World War and the post-war period, there were far fewer issues of emergency money. For example, emergency money circulated during the occupation of the Netherlands by the German troops in 1940, but was immediately withdrawn from circulation.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Paper money in Europe" of the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung (Giesecke+Devrient foundation: collections of bank notes).