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20 Pfennige
| Issuer | Stadtsparkasse Bodenwerder |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in green on white paper, the note is divided into three vertical panels with a fine guilloche underprint throughout. The left panel carries the municipal coat of arms of Bodenwerder — a turreted gateway above a horseman vignette — with the denomination '20 Pf.' in bold below. The central panel bears the value inscription 'Gut für 20 Pfennige' in large display type, with the validity date 'bis 1. Januar 1922', place and issue date 'Bodenwerder, 1 Mai 1920', and the issuing authority 'Die Stadtsparkasse'. The right panel contains a vignette of a figure seated on a crescent moon above a wooded landscape, with '20 Pf.' repeated below; the printer's imprint 'SELMAR BAYER BERLIN SO 36' appears in the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in black on white paper, the reverse is enclosed within a dense cross-hatched rectangular border. A header in large white lettering on black reads 'Gutschein über 20 Pfennige', beneath which a central rounded cartouche contains a four-line rhyming verse in italic letterpress. The lower margin carries 'Sparkasse (Nr ) Bodenwerder' in bold display type, with a blank space reserved for a handwritten serial number. |
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| Comments |
Bodenwerder is a small market town on the Weser in Lower Saxony, best known as the birthplace of Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchhausen — the historical figure later mythologized as Baron Munchausen. The Stadtsparkasse issuing this note was a municipal savings institution, not a central bank, and its authority to emit emergency currency derived from the acute small-change shortage that swept German towns in 1920 as coin metal was hoarded and official supply collapsed.
Selmar Bayer of Berlin printed a large volume of Kleingeldscheine for minor German issuers during this period. The 91 × 40 mm format is unusually narrow — a deliberate economy of paper stock at a moment when even printing costs were rising fast.