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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | City of Cologne (Stadtgemeinde Köln) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | "Koellen eyn Kroin- Gutschein über 50 PFENNIG Dieser Gutschein wird von allen städtischen Kassen in Zahlung genommen. Er verliert seine Gültigkeit einen Monat nach Aufkündigung in den Kölner Ortsblättern. Die Stadtgemeinde Köln haftet für die Einlösung. Köln, den 1. Oktober 1920. Der Oberbürgermeister: Boven allen steden schoin" M. DUMONT SCHAUBERG, KÖLN |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in purple-lilac on a fine guilloche underprint composed of repeated text reading 'KÖLN' and 'STADT KÖLN'. A large central circular vignette presents a detailed engraved view of the Cologne Rathaus (City Hall) with its Gothic tower and Renaissance loggia, framed by a plain ruled circle. Flanking the central vignette at left and right are two octagonal guilloche panels each bearing the numeral '50' in white reserve. |
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| Comments |
Cologne's notgeld program was among the most administratively serious in the Rhineland — the city treated emergency scrip as a municipal obligation rather than a stopgap, contracting M. Dumont Schauberg, one of Germany's oldest and most established printing houses, headquartered in Cologne itself. Founded in 1620, the firm had three centuries of print work behind it when this note came off its presses.
The 1920 date places this squarely in the second wave of German municipal notgeld, after the wartime coin shortages but before the catastrophic hyperinflation that would render such careful small-denomination scrip entirely meaningless within three years.