Catalog
20 Pfennig
| Issuer | Gemeinde Westerhorn (Municipality of Westerhorn) |
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| Year | |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld issued in the Fraktur script tradition, with the denomination numeral '20' in large Gothic lettering within ornamental cartouches at left and right, flanked by the word 'Pfennig' vertically. A red crosshatch and vertical-stripe underprint covers the entire field, overlaid with a symmetrical foliate branch vignette in red. The central text panel bears the issuer inscription, the expiry notice, and two manuscript signatures above the printer's imprint at the base. |
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| Reverse lettering | 20 PF Böl dusend Jåhrn sünd dat her, Do smeten de Waggen von't Westenmeer Bet båben op Wosterhoorn's steilen Strand Den goden swarten Ackersand. |
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| Comments |
Westerhorn is a village in Schleswig-Holstein with a population that, even today, barely reaches four figures. That a municipality this small issued its own emergency currency is a direct consequence of the Reichsbank's inability to keep small-denomination coinage in circulation during and after the First World War — hoarding and metal shortages made Pfennig coins effectively disappear from everyday trade, forcing thousands of German municipalities to print their own Notgeld to make change. Konrad Hanf in Hamburg was a prolific printer of such local issues, supplying numerous small Schleswig-Holstein communities.