Catalog
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| Issuer | Greiffenberg (Silesia), City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 4.3 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents the denomination numeral 10 in large, bold figures prominently at the centre of the field. Surrounding the numeral, the circular legend reads NOTGELD 1919 along the upper arc and PFENNIG along the lower arc, with six-pointed star ornaments serving as separators at each side. The design is plain and functional, characteristic of German municipal emergency coinage (Notgeld) issued during the post-war currency shortage of 1919. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Greiffenberg issued this notgeld piece in 1919 as the postwar economic collapse drained Germany's small-denomination coinage from circulation entirely. Hoarders and the wartime metal drives had gutted the Reichsbank's ability to supply subsidiary currency to small municipalities, forcing hundreds of Silesian towns to contract local foundries for iron emergency pieces. Greiffenberg — a modest textile center in the Riesengebirge foothills — was one of scores of Silesian communities doing exactly this simultaneously.
Iron notgeld from 1919 survives in wildly varying condition depending on storage history; the alloy rusts aggressively, and uncorroded examples are genuinely harder to find than the mintage figures suggest.