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20 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Kempen am Rhein (City of Kempen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 63 × 40 mm |
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| Obverse description | Brown-toned notgeld printed in letterpress on plain paper, with the issuer's name 'Stadt Kempen-Rhein' in large Gothic blackletter script across the upper register. The denomination '20 Pfennig' is set in bold type flanking the central text panel, which carries a validity clause and the date 9.3.20 followed by the Bürgermeister's manuscript signature. The lower portion bears the serial number field 'No.' between two small stylised floral vignettes at each corner. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Multicolour reverse printed in black, red, and ochre-yellow, with the header 'Gutschein der Stadt Kempen-Rh.' in Gothic script on a grey-green band. The central vignette, framed by an arched cartouche, presents a detailed line-engraved view of the Kuhtor, Kempen's medieval city gate tower, captioned 'Kuhtor' beneath. Bold denomination numerals '20' in red with black outline and the word 'Pfennig' flank the vignette on both sides, set against symmetrical ochre foliate underprint scrollwork. |
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| Comments |
Kempen am Rhein issued this Notgeld note during the acute small-change shortage that followed Germany's defeat in the First World War — a period when thousands of municipalities printed their own emergency fractional currency simply to keep retail trade functioning. The 1920 dating places it in the middle phase of the Notgeld phenomenon, after the initial wartime scramble but before hyperinflation rendered such small denominations meaningless within two years.
The print date of 30 April 1945 is almost certainly a catalog or documentation date, not a press date — that day, Hitler died in his Berlin bunker and Allied forces were already well inside the Rhineland.