Banknotes were issued by the Swakopmund Bookshop (German: Swakopmunder Buchhandlung) between 1916 and 1918 as an emergency currency. Although these were issued under South African administration, these notes are denominated in Pfennigs and Marks, which were the currency of German South West Africa. Despite this, these banknotes are genuine British Commonwealth issues.
These notes are wrongly listed in the Specialised Catalog of World Paper Money (which is published by Krause Publications) under German South West Africa.