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2 Mark
| Issuer | Gemeinde Nordseebad Wittdün (Municipality of Wittdün, Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Marks |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on cream paper within a bold zigzag-pattern border. A central circular vignette contains an eagle perched on a rocky crag above a crouching figure, enclosed within a wreath-like frame. The denomination '2 M' appears in ornate script flanked by decorative cartouches at left and right. The upper legend in Gothic Fraktur script reads 'Gutschein der Gemeinde Nordseebad Wittdün'; below the vignette, four facsimile signatures of municipal officials appear alongside their titles, with a serial number in a central panel and validity and publication clauses in Gothic text at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in black and red on cream paper, with a bold zigzag outer border and a red rectangular inner frame enclosing an octagonal panel. The central vignette is a detailed line-art view of the Strasbourg Minster (Strassburger Münster), labelled in a small banner beneath the spire. The denomination '2 Mark' and the word 'Notgeld' appear twice each in large Gothic type at upper left and right, with the legend 'Heil den unerlösten Brüdern' across the lower portion. Patriotic inscriptions in Gothic Fraktur run along all four outer margins, with the bottom margin text printed inverted; the printer's imprint 'Kupfertiefdruck von Broschek & Co., Hamburg.' appears below the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Wittdün is the only settlement on Amrum, one of the North Frisian islands, with a permanent population that in 1921 numbered only a few hundred. The municipality issued this Notgeld not out of any exceptional financial crisis but because the Reichsbank's coin shortages after the war made small-denomination change practically unavailable across rural Germany — island communities faced the problem more acutely than most, with irregular ferry schedules complicating any resupply of currency from the mainland.
Broschek & Co. handled a substantial volume of municipal Notgeld printing out of Hamburg during this period, and the quality of their work varied considerably by client budget. Amrum's tourist trade — the "Nordseebad" designation signals its status as a registered seaside resort — likely gave the municipality slightly more funds than a purely agricultural commune would have had.