Catalog
10 Pfennig Elektrowerke
| Issuer | Elektrowerke Aktiengesellschaft, Grube Golpa |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gut für 10 Pfg. ELEKTROWERKE Aktiengesellschaft GRUBE GOLPA Einzulösen bei der Werkskasse. (Translation: Valid for 10 pfennigs. ELECTRIC WORKS Public Limited Company GOLPA MINE Redeemable at the company's cash office.) |
| Reverse description | Plain white ground enclosed within a typographic border of fine repeating scroll and lacework ornament printed in grey-blue. The interior carries a single justified block of German letterpress text setting out the conditions and time limit for redemption of the notes following withdrawal from circulation. |
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| Comments |
Grube Golpa was a lignite mining operation in Saxony-Anhalt, and the Elektrowerke AG that issued this note was a power utility drawing on that coal supply. Corporate notgeld of this type — issued by an industrial employer rather than a municipality — circulated primarily as wage tokens or canteen currency, redeemable only within the company's own facilities. It kept cash within the enterprise during the chronic small-denomination shortages of 1917–1923.
Golpa-Nord eventually became one of the largest lignite-fired power stations in interwar Germany. The issuing entity outlasted the currency that bore its name by decades.