Catalog
1 Mark Hotel zum Amtsgericht
| Issuer | Hotel zum Amtsgericht, Gronau (Westfalen) |
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| Year | |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-ochre and rust-red letterpress design on cream paper, with a central diamond-shaped vignette containing the large numeral '1' flanked on either side by the inscription 'MARK' in bold blackletter type against a white guilloche underprint with radiating rays. Four corner vignettes in rust-red silhouette illustrate various tradesmen and craftsmen at work. Circular text bands running along the diamond border contain validity and issuer inscriptions, while the printer's imprint 'Fr. Wilh. Ruhfus Dortmund' appears at the foot of the note. |
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| Reverse lettering | HOTEL ZUM AMTSGERICHT GRONAU IN WESTFALEN GEFÄNGNIS SCHIEBER LASS DAS SCHIEBEN SEIN, SONST SCHIEBT'S IN DEN KASTEN REIN |
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| Comments |
Hotel zum Amtsgericht — "Hotel at the Court of Justice" — was one of thousands of German commercial establishments that issued their own emergency small-change notes during the Kleingeldersatz crisis of 1914–1923, when metal coinage vanished from circulation almost overnight at the outbreak of war. A hotel issuing scrip redeemable presumably only on its own premises, or locally in Gronau, was under no central banking obligation; these notes lived and died by the reputation of the business behind them.
Fr. Wilh. Ruhfus of Dortmund was a prolific Notgeld printer, handling commissions from dozens of municipalities and private issuers across Westphalia.