In 1914, World War I began on the European continent. When the war began, the German Empire's economy also entered a wartime economic system. All metals and rare metals were regarded as military supplies. On the other hand, the country had to issue more currency to pay for more military purchases. Gold and foreign exchange gradually dried up. Under the above circumstances, a small loan office (Darlehnskassen) was established. After a lengthy period of preparation, the founding act was passed on August 4, 1914. The new agency released loans against deposits of goods and bonds. The loans were issued in a form similar to banknotes, so-called "small bills". Loan Notes (Darlehnskassenschein)".

These standardized notes had a fixed exchange rate against gold and could be accepted by any state's public authorities. Those who needed to borrow money used small loan notes as if they were actual banknotes. Therefore, although these bills are not legal tender, they are still widely circulated and freely exchangeable with legal tender because their denominations are not large. In particular, small-amount loan coupons with denominations of 1, 2, and 5 marks were widely used. They replaced coins, which were withdrawn from circulation by the Reichsbank or collected by people and state institutions. Autonomous regions or state agencies obtain large amounts of loans from small loan agencies, and as collateral is a contract with the state agency: the small loan agency can issue them first, but in fact these newly issued banknotes are issued by the state. Guaranteed to be honored at a future point in time.