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| Issuer | Stadt Zella-Mehlis (City of Zella-Mehlis) |
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| Year | 1921 |
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| Value | 25 Pfennigs (25 Pfennige) (0.25) |
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| Obverse description | The upper portion of the obverse carries a panoramic vignette of the Thuringian Forest with coniferous hills, surmounted by a curved scroll bearing the issuer legend in Gothic blackletter; at centre, two interlocking oval medallions present half-length portrait busts — a bearded ecclesiastic in mitre at left and a female figure at right — set against a radiating linear underprint in amber and red tones. The lower register is divided into three panels: an architectural vignette of a church at left, a central text panel bearing the validity clause, date, and serial number above a facsimile signature, and a further architectural vignette at right. The printer's imprint appears along the bottom margin. |
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| Obverse lettering | Notgeld der Stadt Zella-Mehlis im Thüringerwald Dieser Schein verliert seine Giltigkeit vier Wochen nach Aufruf. Zella-Mehlis im November 1921 DER STADTRAT Nr. OTTO RICHTERS & Co. ERFURT |
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| Comments |
Zella-Mehlis itself was brand new in 1921 — the towns of Zella St. Blasii and Mehlis had only merged into a single municipality in 1919, and this Notgeld series was among the first civic paper issued under the unified name. The "Unification Series" designation is not decorative; it directly commemorates that administrative consolidation.
Otto Richters & Co. of Erfurt were a regional workhorse printer for Thuringian Notgeld, producing issues for numerous small municipalities during the 1920–1922 wave. Nothing unusual about the printing relationship, but the political occasion behind this particular commission is sharper than most.