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| Issuer | Stadt Sömmerda (City of Sömmerda) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Alfred Hanf, Erfurt, Germany; Wilhelm Adam & Co, Nerchau i.S., Germany |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Olive-green and red Notgeld note with a bold black outer border. The central panel carries the city arms — an eagle displayed above a cartwheel within a laurel wreath on a red ground — surmounted by a verse in Gothic Fraktur script referencing Saint Boniface and the church named in his honour. To the left, a detailed line-engraved vignette of a Gothic church with a tall steeple set among trees, and to the right a view of a medieval town gate with a procession of townspeople passing beneath it. The printer's imprint 'Alfred Hanf – Erfurt.' appears along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Bonifatius, der Gottesmann, hub dann hier zu bekehren an; denn ist noch heute, wie bekannt, die grösste Kirch' nach ihm genannt. Alfred Hanf - Erfurt. |
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| Comments |
Sömmerda's decision to commemorate Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse on its emergency currency was pointed civic pride: Dreyse, born in the town in 1787, invented the needle gun — the bolt-action breech-loader that gave Prussian infantry a decisive advantage at Königgrätz in 1866. By 1921, that legacy was politically complicated in a disarmed Germany still absorbing the Versailles terms, which makes the choice quietly defiant.
Two printers handled different values or print runs within this series — Alfred Hanf in Erfurt and Wilhelm Adam & Co. in Nerchau — a split-production arrangement not uncommon for Notgeld issued in volume during the inflationary period.