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20 Pfennig
| Issuer | Magistrat der Stadt Altona |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DIESER SCHEIN WIRD 2 WOCHEN NACH AUFRUF IM ALTONAER AMTS- BLATT UNGÜLTIG - ALTONA-E. 12. DEZEMBER 1921 DER MAGISTRAT |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a vivid multicolour woodcut-style vignette of a full-rigged sailing vessel under sail on open water, rendered in black, red, green, and blue. The denomination numerals '20' and the abbreviation 'PF' appear in red at the upper left and upper right corners respectively within the black-ruled border. The city name 'ALTONA' is printed in large bold red outlined letters across the lower portion of the design, set against a green ground. |
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| Comments |
Altona in 1921 was still an independent city under Prussian administration — it would not be absorbed into Hamburg until 1937. Its municipal government, the Magistrat, issued this Kleingeldersatz note during the severe small-change shortage that plagued German cities in the early Weimar period, when metal coins were being hoarded and inflation was beginning to erode public confidence in the currency. Municipal notgeld of this type was a purely local stopgap, legally valid only within the issuing jurisdiction.
Altona issues from this period are modestly collected but rarely remarkable. The 1921 series sits late in the notgeld wave — most of the decorative, collector-targeted emergency money had already peaked by mid-1921.