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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Gatersleben, Municipality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown and green tones on cream paper, with a decorative border enclosing the denomination numeral '50' at upper left and right in bold Gothic type alongside the issuer name 'Gatersleben'. At centre, a vignette within a scroll cartouche presents a coloured view of the Gatersleben church (Die Gatersleber Kirche) set among trees, with a church bell and tools rendered in the foreground. Flanking the vignette are two columns of Gothic-script verse text, with the date 'Gatersleben, den 30. 7. 1921', the issuing authority 'Der Gemeindevorstand', and a facsimile signature; the printer's imprint 'Louis Koch – Halberstadt' and the artist's credit 'W. Dockhorn' appear in the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in red, brown, and black on cream paper with a fine hatched underprint background and a dark decorative border. A humorous genre vignette occupies the centre, illustrating a bedridden 'hoarder' (Hamster) being attended by devil figures while money bags labelled 'Gold' and 'Silber' hang at upper right; a small Notgeld stamp vignette with the denomination '50 Pf' appears at lower left. Three stanzas of Gothic-script satirical verse run across the upper and lower portions of the note, and the large numeral '50' is printed in red at the lower right. |
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| Comments |
Gatersleben is a small agricultural village in Saxony-Anhalt, and its decision to issue emergency currency in 1921 was purely practical — the postwar coin shortage had gutted everyday retail transactions across rural Germany, and municipalities of almost any size were authorized to fill the gap. The Louis Koch press in nearby Halberstadt handled a considerable volume of such Notgeld commissions from the surrounding region during this period, which means production quality here is generally competent without being exceptional.
W. Dockhorn's design credit is uncommon enough to be worth noting — most small-town Notgeld went out without individual designer attribution.