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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Köln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| 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 | Black letterpress on pale lilac guilloche underprint, with a thick ornamental border enclosing the design. The large denomination numerals '50' and 'PFENNIG' dominate the left and centre, above a serial number in green. To the right stands a vignette of Jan von Werth, the celebrated Cologne cavalry general, in period armour with a lance, labelled 'J. v. Werth'. A red circular city seal of Köln is affixed at lower left, alongside the manuscript signature of the Oberbürgermeister dated 13 July 1921, and a clause text stating acceptance at all municipal cashiers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue-grey on a dense typographic underprint repeating 'STADT KÖLN' throughout the field. A central vignette illustrates the folkloric Cologne couple 'Jan un Griet' in a homecoming scene, captioned 'HEIMKEHR' above and 'JAN UN GRIET' below. The four corners carry circular medallions each bearing the numeral '50', while two flanking text panels carry Cologne dialect quotations. |
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| Comments |
Cologne's Notgeld issues of 1921 came during the height of Germany's postwar coin shortage, when municipal and commercial authorities across the Rhineland were printing emergency small-denomination scrip to cover what the Reichsbank simply couldn't supply in metal. Stadt Köln contracted M. Dumont Schauberg — the city's own major newspaper and printing house, founded in 1802 — for several denominations, keeping production entirely local.
The Rhineland's status as an Allied-occupied zone after Versailles added a particular administrative wrinkle: German municipal authorities had to issue currency within a framework of occupation oversight, making even routine Notgeld production a mildly political act.