Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 Mark
| Issuer | Sparkasse der Stadt Lügde |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Mark |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cream-yellow note with ornate die-cut scalloped border in dark brown. The central vignette presents the heraldic shield of Lügde — divided per pale with a red cross on white to sinister and a silver key on black to dexter — surmounted by a red mural crown, all set within a circular dark cartouche. The denomination '2 Mark' appears in large Gothic script flanking the shield on both sides, with the issuing authority legend and serial number inscribed in Gothic letterpress across the lower half, dated Lügde, den 16. Februar 1921. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Richly coloured vignette in the Arts and Crafts tradition, signed 'Entw. v. Fr. Drewes, Lügde', presenting a landscape view of the Romanesque St. Kilianskirche Lügde amid trees and rolling hills rendered in warm autumnal tones. Decorative columnar pilasters in green, red and cream frame the composition on either side, each bearing the numeral '2 Mark' in outlined Gothic figures along with small symbolic motifs including crosses and animal masks. A lower text panel records the historical note that Charlemagne celebrated Christmas at this site in the year 784. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Lügde is a small spa town in the Teutoburg Forest region, and its municipal savings bank — the Sparkasse der Stadt Lügde — issued this 2 Mark Notgeld during the acute coin shortage that swept German municipalities in 1921. The local designer credit, Fr. Drewes of Lügde, is unusual; most small-town issuers outsourced design entirely to the printer. Here the artwork was conceived locally and then sent to J. C. König & Ebhardt in Hannover for production.
König & Ebhardt were primarily a bookbinding and stationery firm, not a dedicated security printer — a detail that reflects how broadly the Notgeld printing trade was spread across German commercial printers during this period.