See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

10 Pfennig

Issuer Stadt Melle (City of Melle)
Year 1921
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
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
Reference(s) DeNG 1/2#0879.1-2/6
Obverse description The upper portion of the note carries two ribbon banners inscribed STADT and MELLE flanking a central circular vignette with the denomination numeral 10 in red-orange letterpress, below which PF appears in black, the whole surrounded by ornate scrollwork. In the lower half, a framed text panel contains a six-line patriotic verse in German blackletter script. Small pen-and-ink vignettes of a factory with smoking chimneys appear at lower left and a figure climbing or working a pole at lower right, both rendered in orange and black.
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse lettering 10 10
Wir stammen ab vom Silbergroschen,
Der war was wert und glänzte hell.
Als seine Linie erloschen,
Traten die Nickel an die Stell.
Der Nickel macht dem groben Klumpen,
Dem Zehnerstück von Eisen, Platz.
Dann kamen wir gewalkten Lumpen,
Nach uns kommt dann Papierersatz.
Dieser Gutschein ist zum Verkehr mit den städtischen Kassen bestimmt. Er verliert einen Monat nach öffentlicher Aufforderung zur Einlösung seine Gültigkeit.
Melle, November 1921. Der Magistrat
Signature(s) Log in to see details
Protection type Log in to see details
Protection description Log in to see details
Variants Log in to see details
Comments

Melle, a small market town in Lower Saxony, issued this note as part of the broader Kleingeldersatz wave that swept German municipalities in the early 1920s — local authorities printing emergency fractional currency because the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough low-denomination coin to meet everyday commerce. The 10 Pfennig denomination was the workhorse of that gap, used for tram fares, market stalls, and small retail transactions that metallic coinage had once handled without thought.

The DeNG reference places this within a documented series for Melle, suggesting the city issued multiple notgeld types across this period rather than a single one-off printing.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE