Catalog
1/2 Mark Herzhorn
| Issuer | Gemeinde Herzhorn |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress print on white paper with perforated edges on all sides. The note is enclosed within a decorative border composed of repeating diamond and square motifs. The central text is set in Gothic blackletter script, with the word 'Gutschein' in large display type at the top, followed by the issuer name and denomination below; a violet circular official municipality stamp is applied at the top centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain white paper reverse, unprinted, with perforated edges on all sides consistent with the obverse. |
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| Comments |
Herzhorn is a village in Holstein, and its half-Mark notgeld is among the smallest-format emergency issues of the WWI period — a consequence of the chronic small-change shortage that hit rural German municipalities particularly hard from 1916 onward. Local authorities were permitted to issue their own temporary fractional currency when the Reichsbank could not supply sufficient coin, and hundreds of Gemeinden took up that authority.
At 58 × 41 mm, this is genuinely pocket-sized — closer to a postage stamp than a banknote. Paper this small degrades quickly in daily use, which accounts for the difficulty in finding undamaged survivors.