Rudolstadt issued this notgeld piece in 1920 as small-denomination coinage shortages — a direct consequence of metal hoarding and wartime disruption — left municipal governments across Germany scrambling to produce local substitutes. The Stadtrat's choice to invoke Charlotte von Lengefeld, who married Friedrich Schiller in the town's Stadtkirche in 1790, was a deliberate act of civic pride; Rudolstadt had long traded on its Schiller connection, the poet having spent formative summers there in the late 1780s.
Iron was the pragmatic choice for these issues, copper and nickel being tightly controlled. Funck 457.9A distinguishes this from closely related dies in the series.
Rudolstadt issued this notgeld piece in 1920 as small-denomination coinage shortages — a direct consequence of metal hoarding and wartime disruption — left municipal governments across Germany scrambling to produce local substitutes. The Stadtrat's choice to invoke Charlotte von Lengefeld, who married Friedrich Schiller in the town's Stadtkirche in 1790, was a deliberate act of civic pride; Rudolstadt had long traded on its Schiller connection, the poet having spent formative summers there in the late 1780s.
Iron was the pragmatic choice for these issues, copper and nickel being tightly controlled. Funck 457.9A distinguishes this from closely related dies in the series.