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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Frankfurt am Main (City of Frankfurt am Main) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in light blue, the reverse is dominated by a large central guilloche medallion with a scalloped border enclosing the heraldic eagle of Frankfurt — the Reichsadler displayed with spread wings on a striped shield — rendered in fine intaglio-style engraving. The surrounding field is covered with an intricate geometric guilloche lattice incorporating small rosette and floral motifs at regular intervals, providing a dense anti-counterfeiting underprint. A faint printer's imprint appears at the lower margin. |
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| Protection description | Naumann-wheel pattern |
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| Comments |
Frankfurt's municipal administration began issuing Notgeld in 1917 under the acute coin shortage caused by wartime metal requisitioning — silver, nickel, and even copper had been pulled from circulation for military use, leaving German cities scrambling to cover small-denomination transactions. Carl Naumann's Druckerei, a Frankfurt house with nearly a century of commercial printing behind it, was a natural local contractor for the job.
The watermark is an uncommon security measure for municipal emergency currency of this period; most German city Notgeld from 1917 dispensed with such features entirely, making this issue slightly more deliberate in its production than the typical wartime stopgap.