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| Issuer | Magistrat Bydgoszczy (Municipality of Bydgoszcz) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Pfen (0.50) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Znaczek wartościowy na 50 fen / słowami pięćdziesiąt fenigów / MAGISTRAT BYDGOSZCZY / Bydgoszcz, dnia 11. marca 1920. / Magistrat |
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| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Haciaszek and Friedländer |
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| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Bydgoszcz was transferred from German to Polish administration in January 1920 under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, and this note dates from that chaotic transitional period when local authorities were scrambling to maintain basic economic function. The city's German commercial infrastructure — including the printer Richard Koehl, still operating under the firm name Gewerbeverbände Bucher — was still physically intact and simply put to work for the new Polish municipal authority.
The mixed-language signals in this note's production history reflect a city that was, for a brief window, neither fully one thing nor the other. Koehl's press had been printing German municipal scrip; now it was printing Polish.