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10 Mark
| Issuer | Kreisausschuss des Kreises Steinburg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Mark |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is executed in an Expressionist woodcut-like letterpress style designed by Wenzel August Hablik. A central vignette to the left depicts a bird perched atop a sword thrust into a rocky mound amid foliage, symbolising resistance and endurance. The border is densely filled with hand-lettered Gothic text running along all four margins, while the upper central area bears the circular seal of the Kreisausschuss des Kreises Steinburg above the large denomination numeral '10' set within a starburst, with the red serial number printed to its right; the denomination in bold blackletter 'ZEHN MARK' dominates the centre-right field, below which appears the issue text, redemption clause, date 'Itzehoe, 12. Nov. 1918', and facsimile signatures. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Wmk: Sechseckflechwerk-hexagonal weave |
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| Comments |
The Kreisausschuss des Kreises Steinburg — the district committee of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein — issued this note as Notgeld during the final weeks of the First World War, when small-denomination coinage had effectively disappeared from circulation across Germany. The printer, J.J. Augustin of Glückstadt, was a well-established regional press that handled a significant volume of local emergency currency in the north German states during this period.
The designer credit is the more interesting detail. Wenzel August Hablik was a Czech-born Expressionist artist who had settled in Itzehoe, the Steinburg district seat, and would go on to become one of the more distinctive figures associated with the Expressionist Utopian movement. His involvement in a local Notgeld commission was not unusual for the time — municipalities often turned to local artists — but Hablik's aesthetic sensibility ran considerably deeper than most who took on such work.
The watermarked paper was supplied to provide minimal security against forgery, a standard precaution even for notes intended as purely temporary instruments.