1920 Municipality of Pennewang, Upper Austria 20 Heller Post-WWI Notgeld Note Grades Gem CU. Notgeld is German for "emergency/necessity money". Notgeld typically refers to German and Austrian notes produced in the post-WWI period. Somewhat similar to Depression Scrip in the USA, these notes were issued when there wasn'te nough state-produced money available from the central bank. Issuing institutions were often a town's savings banks, municipalities, or private or state-owned firms. Nearly all issues contained an expiry date, after which time they were invalid. Issues without dates ordinarily had an expiry announced in a newspaper or at the place of issuance.