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25 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Wilhelmshaven (City of Wilhelmshaven) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
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| Obverse description | Cream-white note with a rectilinear blue border framing the entire face; denomination numerals '25' appear in bold serif type within blue corner squares at each corner, and the city name 'WILHELMSHAVEN' is set in large Gothic letterpress along the upper and lower horizontal bands. The central text block carries the redemption clause in German script, dated Wilhelmshaven, den 10. Juni 1920, with the issuing authority 'DER MAGISTRAT' printed beneath a manuscript signature. The overall design is characteristic of austere Notgeld typography, relying on lettering and border work rather than pictorial vignettes. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | WILHELMSHAVEN 25 25 Pfennige zahlt die Kämmereikasse dem Einlieferer des Scheines. Ungültig, wenn er nicht drei Monate nach Aufruf in den hiesigen Zeitungen eingelöst. Wilhelmshaven, den 10. Juni 1920. DER MAGISTRAT |
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| Comments |
Wilhelmshaven's notgeld program came directly out of the chaos following the November 1918 armistice, when the Imperial Navy's main North Sea base was effectively stripped of its purpose overnight. The city lost its dominant employer — the Kaiserliche Werft, the imperial shipyard — and with it a substantial portion of its economic base. Small-denomination coinage evaporated from circulation as the Weimar transition sputtered, and municipal authorities across Germany stepped in to print their own emergency fractional currency.
By 1920, Wilhelmshaven's issues had become collectible as much as functional, part of the broader "serienscheine" phenomenon in which municipalities printed aesthetically ambitious sets specifically to generate revenue from collectors. Whether this 25 Pfennig note circulated meaningfully or went straight into albums is a fair question.