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1 Mark
| Issuer | Magistrat der Stadt Helmarshausen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in black, red-orange, and blue-grey on cream paper, the reverse is divided into two panels within an Art Nouveau-style border with corner ornaments. The left panel contains a woodcut-style illustration of the Schmied Helmbrecht legend, showing a skeletal figure driving nails through the hands of a recumbent male figure upon a draped table, with a Gothic script banner scroll above. The right panel presents four stanzas of verse in German Gothic script on a red-orange ground, recounting the Helmbrecht legend in narrative form. |
| Reverse lettering | Schmied Helmbrecht treibt dem Herrn Nägel durch Händ und Füß Und den ernsten Blick der Herrin Hat Schmied Helmbrecht wohl verstanden, Nimmt entschlossen schnell das Werkzeug Und — die Wunden sind vorhanden. Andern Tags rufts her vom Walde: Kommt und seht, was wir gefunden, Unsern lieben Herrn und Heiland Edelschön, mit allen Wunden! Und sie legen ihn mit Andacht Auf die grüngeschmückte Bahre, Tragen ihn nach Gottesbühren Hin zum heiligen Altare. |
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| Comments |
Helmarshausen is a small town on the Diemel river in Hessen-Waldeck, and like hundreds of German municipalities in 1921, its local Magistrat stepped in to plug a chronic shortage of small-denomination coinage by issuing its own notgeld. These municipal paper issues were a direct consequence of postwar metal shortages and the inflationary pressures that were already making official coinage economically unviable to produce and hoard long before the hyperinflation of 1923 hit its peak.
Collector demand for notgeld was so intense by this period that many municipalities printed deliberate series in excess of local need — it is worth considering whether Helmarshausen's issue circulated meaningfully at all, or was absorbed straight into collections.