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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Villingen (City of Villingen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Pfennigs (50 Pfennige) (0.50) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Green and pink letterpress Kriegsgeld (war emergency note) with a decorative stone-block border framing the entire face. The denomination 'Fünfzig Pfennig' is rendered in large Gothic script across the centre, flanking a central vignette of the Villingen civic arms. The lower portion carries a serial number box at left, a validity text panel at left reading 'Dieser Geldschein wird von allen städtischen Kassen eingelost,' the place and date 'Villingen, 1. April 1918' at right, the authority line 'Für den Gemeinderat / Der Bürgermeister,' and a facsimile signature beneath. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Kriegsgeld der Stadt Villingen 50 Pfennig Altes Rathaus Gültig bis 1. April 1920. Nachahmung Strafbar! UHLAND'SCHE BUCHDRUCKEREI G.M.B.H., STUTTGART |
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| Comments |
Villingen's 1918 Kleingeldscheine were a direct response to the wartime coin shortage that had stripped small-denomination metal from circulation across Germany — copper and nickel requisitioned, silver long gone. Municipal authorities throughout Baden and Württemberg printed their own emergency fractional currency rather than wait for a central solution that never came cleanly. Uhland'sche Buchdruckerei in Stuttgart handled a significant volume of these regional Notgeld contracts, and their output for smaller Swabian towns tends toward plain typography over the elaborate imagery that collectors associate with the 1920–1922 Notgeld wave.
This is the functional, unglamorous first wave — issued to make change, not to be saved.