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25 Pfennig
| Issuer | Municipality of Bielschowitz (Upper Silesia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | A central oval vignette rendered in red and yellow presents an armed Polish insurgent soldier against a backdrop of burning industrial buildings and factory chimneys engulfed in flames. A ribbon banner at the top carries the place name BIELSCHOWITZ, with bilingual text cartouches at upper left and right bearing commemorative inscriptions in German and Polish referencing the 1921 Polish uprising. The denomination 25 Pfennig appears in a red rectangular panel at lower centre, flanked by bilingual validity and issuing authority inscriptions with facsimile signatures, and the printer's imprint K. MIARKA G.M.B.H. NIKOLAI O.S. at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Aufruf Korfantys am 3. Mai 1921 POLEN Landsleute! Es muss jedwede Spur des preussischen Joches verschwinden! Korfanty (-) Den Sieg müssen wir um jeden Preis erringen kein Gewalthaber der Welt im Stande die Germanen fesseln aufzuzwingen. (-) Wojciech Korfanty Standort 3. Mai 1921 Verfassung Korfanty (-) 25 25 |
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| Comments |
Bielschowitz was a small coal-mining town in the contested Upper Silesian industrial belt, and this note appeared during the plebiscite period — the months of political uncertainty between 1920 and 1921 when the region's fate between Germany and Poland was still being decided by referendum and, ultimately, by armed conflict. Municipal Notgeld from this specific corner of Silesia carries a significance beyond the ordinary small-change emergency: the issuing authorities were asserting local administrative function at a moment when the legitimacy of that authority was itself under dispute.
Printed by K. Miarka in Nikolai — a firm whose name is conspicuously Polish in origin, operating in a German-administered town — the production detail alone reflects the demographic tangle the plebiscite was meant to resolve.