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20 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Kellinghusen (Magistrat) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Tan-brown notgeld note with an ornate baroque scroll and acanthus-leaf border framing the central design. A circular vignette at centre carries a city wall or fortification motif as underprint, over which the large bold numeral '20' and the Pfennig sign are printed in black letterpress. Flanking text in Fraktur script runs vertically along both side margins, with the issuing authority 'Der Magistrat', place name 'Kellinghusen', date 'den 6. Aug. 1920', and a manuscript signature at lower right; the inscription 'Stadt Kellinghusen' appears across the bottom within a decorative cartouche. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Tan-brown reverse carries a square-framed circular vignette at left, printed in blue-grey, showing a panoramic townscape of Kellinghusen with church spire, rooftops, and birds in flight over water. To the right, a multi-line verse in Low German (Plattdeutsch) Fraktur script occupies the central field, with the denomination 'Zwinti 20 Pfenn' in large decorative lettering at the far right. The printer's imprint 'Buchdruckerei H. J. J. Hay, Kellinghusen' and the name 'A. Silbertoff' appear along the outer right margin. |
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| Comments |
Kellinghusen is a small town in Holstein, and its magistrate issued this note during the acute small-change famine that gripped Germany in 1920 as metal coinage disappeared from circulation. The H. J. J. Hay press was a local printer — not a security firm — which is precisely what makes Notgeld from municipal issuers like this so easy to counterfeit in principle and so charmingly local in practice. Hay printed for the town it operated within, using whatever stock was available.
Thousands of German municipalities did the same between 1918 and 1921, but most contracted larger regional printers. A note produced and issued within the same small town by a commercial jobbing printer is about as hyperlocal as this series gets.