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| Issuer | Stadt Hersfeld (Magistrat) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| In circulation to | 31 January 1919 |
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| Obverse description | Single-sided notgeld printed in red and black on cream paper, with a double-rule red border framing the entire design. The issuer's name "Stadt Hersfeld" with a patriarchal cross emblem appears in bold Gothic type at the top. A central vignette shows a townscape of Hersfeld with a church tower, over which the denomination "Zwei Mark" is printed in large Gothic script; numeral "2" rosettes in guilloche underprint flank the vignette on left and right. Below, a five-line text block in Gothic type states the redemption conditions, the expiry date of 31 January 1919, the issue date of 4 November 1918, and the issuing authority "Der Magistrat," followed by two manuscript signatures. A serial letter "A" appears at upper left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Stadt ✝ Hersfeld. Zwei Mark Dieser Schein wird von der Stadtkasse in Zahlung genommen. Er verliert seine Gültigkeit am 31. Januar 1919. Die Stadt haftet für die Einlösung. Hersfeld, den 4. November 1918. Der Magistrat. |
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| Comments |
Hersfeld's 1918 Notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency currency that flooded Germany as the imperial government lost control of small-denomination coinage circulation. The Magistrat — the town's administrative council, not a bank — had no printing infrastructure of its own, so production went to a local press, keeping both the design and the paper quality modest by any measure.
Bad Hersfeld, as the spa town was redesignated in 1949, was a minor issuer. Notes from small Hessian municipalities like this one were often printed in very limited quantities and redeemed quickly, which paradoxically makes worn examples harder to find than uncirculated remainder stock.