Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Mark
| Issuer | Gemeinde Stroebeck (Municipality of Ströbeck) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | 31 March 1922 |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Yellow-toned notgeld note enclosed within a double-rule border, with a central vignette of a stylised jester in harlequin costume standing astride a large spherical chessboard rendered in bold black-and-white check pattern, arms outstretched with each hand holding a small diamond-shaped chess emblem bearing a crown and flame motif. The denomination "GUTSCHEIN ½ MARK" appears in bold block lettering at lower left, with the issuing authority "GEMEINDE STROEBECK" at lower right, the issue and expiry dates inscribed in a smaller legend below, and the printer's imprint "DRUCK VON J.P. HIMMER – AUGSBURG" centred beneath the border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | GUTSCHEIN 1/2 MARK AUSGABE: 1.10.21. VERFALL: 31.3.22. GEMEINDE STROEBECK DER VORSTAND: DRUCK VON J.P. HIMMER - AUGSBURG. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Ströbeck is a village in the Harz region with a documented chess-playing tradition stretching back to at least the eleventh century — a curiosity that made it a natural candidate for novelty notgeld during the inflation years. The municipality leaned into that identity, and Himmer in Augsburg, one of the more prolific small-format notgeld printers of the period, produced the run.
Himmer handled enormous volumes of municipal notgeld commissions between 1920 and 1922, which kept unit costs low for tiny issuers like Ströbeck who would otherwise have had no printing infrastructure whatsoever.