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!
½ Mark
| Issuer | Sparkasse der Stadt Lünen (Savings Bank of the City of Lünen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Pink guilloche underprint with repeated 'Stadt Lünen' and 'Sparkasse' text forms the background. The denomination '½ Mark' is rendered in large Fraktur blackletter at centre, above validity text and date. A circular official seal of the Sparkasse der Stadt Lünen appears at lower left, with a serial number in a vertical panel at right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central vignette shows a finely engraved view of a multi-storey civic building, likely the Lünen Sparkasse headquarters, with a monument visible to its right and trees flanking the composition. The denomination '½ Mark' in Fraktur blackletter is repeated in all four corners against a plain cream ground. |
| 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 |
Lünen's municipal savings bank issued this Notgeld half-mark in 1917, when the German imperial government's wartime metal requisitions had stripped small-denomination coin from everyday commerce almost entirely. Local authorities across the Ruhr were left to paper over the gap themselves — literally. The Sparkasse had no printing mandate from Berlin; the legal basis was improvised, and the notes were redeemed locally from town funds.
Half-mark denominations are among the more frequently encountered Lünen issues from this period, suggesting heavy use in small retail transactions — coal-town wages, market purchases, tram fares.