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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Thale am Harz (City of Thale am Harz) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Louis Koch, Halberstadt, Germany |
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| Obverse description | The upper portion of the note carries a large vignette in bold Expressionist style depicting two dark demonic figures — representing a negotiation with the Devil — flanking a central arched cartouche that contains the Thale town coat of arms with a lion supporter and a female allegorical figure above; an owl perches in the upper left, and a serpent and frog appear at lower right, all rendered in striking black against an orange ground. Below the central vignette, an inscribed banner reads 'Niemals zurück' ('Never back'), and the date 1921 appears in red. The lower register contains the denomination value '50 Pfennig' in octagonal cartouches at each lower corner, with the validity clause and the facsimile signature of the Bürgermeister (mayor) centered between them. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Partie an der Bode. - Herz Jesu-Kirche |
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| Comments |
Thale sits at the entrance to the Bode Gorge in the Harz — a town with genuine folkloric weight, long associated with the Walpurgis Night traditions of the surrounding mountains. Whether that local identity influenced the note's design is a separate question, but the municipal administration here was clearly engaged enough to commission Louis Koch in Halberstadt rather than rely on one of the larger notgeld printers servicing hundreds of identical issues simultaneously.
Koch was a regional jobbing printer, not a specialist currency house, which makes quality consistency across the series variable. The .15d suffix in the Grabowski-Mehl reference indicates this is a distinct typographic or color variant within the 1320 group — worth confirming against the full listing before cataloging confidently.