NOTGELD

A German term that means "emergency money." Notgeld denotes a form of quasi-currency that is issued by a body other than a central bank - which is generally the only official issuer of a nation's currency - and therefore, is not legal tender. The term is widely used to describe such emergency money following its best-known example, the colossal amount of notgeld paper money printed in Germany during the period of hyperinflation after World War I.