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10 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Esens (City of Esens) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a shield bearing the denomination "STADT ESENS 10 PFENNIG" flanked by a rural landscape with grazing livestock at right and an armored sentinel with flag at left. A scroll banner at top carries the Old Frisian motto; serial number and Bürgermeister signature appear in lower panels. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted ground enclosed by a double ruled border with circular corner ornaments; a lightly printed city arms vignette appears as underprint at center, overlaid entirely by the redemption text in Gothic script. |
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| Comments |
Esens is a small market town in East Frisia, and like hundreds of German municipalities it resorted to printing its own low-denomination Notgeld during the coin shortages of the First World War and its aftermath. These civic emergency issues were administered locally, redeemable only within the issuing town, and typically printed in small runs by whatever commercial printer was available regionally. The 10 Pfennig denomination was the workhorse of small-change Notgeld — covering tram fares, bread, and market transactions when Imperial coinage had vanished into hoarding.
The serial number is the only security measure, which tells you something about the trust model: these notes functioned on local reputation, not on any technical barrier to forgery.