Catalog
10 Pfennigs
| Issuer | Stadt Zörbig (City of Zörbig) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette based on a 1737 copper engraving by F. G. Elteste, presenting the Slavic idol 'Flynz' as a robed, bearded male figure standing barefoot, holding a torch-staff in his left hand and restraining a serpentine creature atop his head with his right; the figure is set against a sketched landscape ground. The composition is enclosed within a dotted rectangular border, with the deity's name 'FLYNZ' inscribed at upper centre and a Roman numeral 'IV' at upper right. A descriptive caption in Gothic script at the lower margin reads: 'Der Flenzstein im Sühnegelände b. Zörbig, eine Stätte heidnischen Gottesdienstes' with a source attribution to Elteste's 1737 work, initialled 'H. Sch.' at lower right. |
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| Obverse lettering | FLYNZ IV Der Flenzstein im Suhnegelände b. Zörbig eine Stätte heidnischen Gottesdienstes (Nach einem Kupferstich i. F. G. Elteste „Nachricht von der Stadt Zörbig II, 1737) H. Sch. |
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| Comments |
Zörbig is a small town in Saxony-Anhalt, and like hundreds of German municipalities during the Kleingeldnot of 1917–1921, it issued its own emergency fractional currency when the Reich's small change essentially vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply overwhelmed by wartime demand. These municipal Notgeld issues were a purely local stopgap, backed by nothing more than the issuing city's word and the practical necessity of making change.
Faber of Magdeburg printed extensively for smaller Saxony-Anhalt communities during this period, which is why the production quality on these minor issues tends to be competent but unadorned.