10 Pfennig Arnstadt notgeld

This notgeld is from Arnstadt and has the value of 10 Pfennig. It shows a man and a woman sitting on the numbers 1 and 0. The man has a big sack on his back and the woman is holding a chicken laying eggs into a sack held by the man. The inscription in German reads: 'Was nutzt uns aller Eiersegen wenn sie in andere Nester legen - APW' and translates as: 'What good does this blessing of eggs do, if they are being laid in other nests - APW' This is one of sixty notgeld or 'emergency money' banknotes in the reference collection of packaging material which belonged to the designer Charles Hasler. Notgeld were produced by German towns, villages and municipalities from the end of the First World War until the mid 1920s, when the state bank (the Reichsbank), struggled with wartime metal shortages and post- war hyperinflation. The highly decorative notes soon became collectors items - and still remain to this day. They are double-sided and printed with their monetary value, information about the village, town or province of issue and some colourful illustration.