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10 Pfennig - Bonn Ludwig van Beethoven
| Issuer | Stadt Bonn (City of Bonn) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | STADT BONN 10 PFENNIG |
| Reverse description | Left-facing draped bust of Ludwig van Beethoven occupying the majority of the field, rendered in bold high relief with characteristically disheveled hair and strong, brooding features. The inscription BEETHOVEN arcs along the left periphery and BONN along the upper right, separated by a small six-pointed star ornament. The birth year 1770 descends vertically along the right margin, while the issue year 1920 appears in the exergue below the truncation, commemorating the 150th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. |
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| Additional information |
Bonn issued this emergency coin — a Notgeld piece — in 1920, when the postwar collapse of the German monetary system left municipalities scrambling to produce their own small-denomination coinage to keep local commerce functioning. The city chose Beethoven, its most famous native son, as the obvious civic symbol for a difficult moment. Hundreds of German towns issued Notgeld during this period, but Bonn's iron series is among the more restrained designs produced, eschewing the sometimes garish allegorical imagery common to the genre.
The galvanized iron composition reflects wartime and postwar metal austerity — copper and nickel had been diverted to the war effort years earlier and remained scarce.