Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pfennig
| Issuer | City of Erfurt (Notgeld) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a powerful full-bleed Expressionist woodcut vignette in stark black and white, depicting a standing male figure looming over a kneeling or crouching woman in a posture of supplication or distress, rendered with angular, heavily contrasted linework characteristic of German Expressionism circa 1920. Gothic Fraktur text panels border the composition on the left and right margins, bearing a two-part verse inscription. The printer's imprint 'Otto Richters u. Co, Erfurt' is set in roman capitals along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Doch so's will ich's haben: die Wahrheit und Muss es ihm sollen: es so hälse kosten. |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Erfurt was unusually prolific in its Notgeld output, and this 50 Pfennig piece is among those produced during the municipality's peak issuing period of 1921, when the postal rate hikes and chronic small-change shortages kept local authorities printing well into the inflation's early phase. Two separate Erfurt printers — Alfred Hanf and Otto Richters & Co. — handled production, suggesting either a split print run or sequential contracts as demand outpaced a single shop's capacity.
Collector-driven "Serienscheine" demand was already distorting Notgeld economics by this point; many 1921 issues were printed knowing they'd never leave a collection envelope.