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| Issuer | Stadt Freiberg (City of Freiberg) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Letterpress reverse in green and black with a matching ornate scrollwork border. The central vignette, signed 'Rieß', shows a miner in working dress pushing a loaded ore tram bearing the large denomination cipher '10 M', set against a panoramic skyline silhouette of Freiberg with church towers, and the city arms at lower left. A repeated crossed-hammer underprint pattern fills the background, with the serial number printed in red at upper left and the series letter at upper right, the printer's imprint appearing at the base. |
| Reverse lettering | Zehn Mark Stadt Freiberg Wer Gutscheine nachmacht oder verfälscht oder nachgemachte oder verfälschte sich verschafft und in Verkehr bringt, wird mit Zuchthaus nicht unter zwei Jahren bestraft. No 023436 A KREY & SOMMERLAD, NIEDERSEDLITZ-DR. |
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| Comments |
Freiberg, in Saxony, had been a silver-mining center since the twelfth century — its Erzgebirge mines supplied much of the metal that backed German coinage for generations. There is a particular irony in a city so historically tied to hard money resorting to paper Notgeld in 1918, as the wartime coin shortage stripped everyday transactions of anything metallic worth keeping. Municipal authorities across Germany were doing the same, but the provenance here is sharper than most.
Krey & Sommerlad in Niedersedlitz were a mid-tier commercial printer handling substantial regional Notgeld contracts during this period. The watermark security feature is modest but deliberate — more about deterring local forgery than any sophisticated anti-counterfeiting scheme. Designer Rieß is otherwise obscure in the Notgeld record.