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 | Lehesten (Thuringia), City of |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Merzdorf & Frosch, Saalfeld a. S., Germany |
| 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 | Central oval vignette with a detailed letterpress panoramic view of Lehesten town set against a forested Thuringian hillside. Denomination panels reading '50 Pfennig' in bold black and red appear at upper left and right corners against dark green grounds, flanked by a diamond-pattern border. Below the vignette, a text cartouche in green underprint bears the issuing authority inscription in Gothic script, with the municipal coat of arms at lower left and a miner's crossed-hammer emblem at lower right; a serial number is printed in the lower panel, and validity date 'GÜLTIG BIS 31. DEZEMBER 1921' appears vertically on both side margins. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 Pfennig Gold und Silber lieb ich sehr · Könnt es gut gebrauchen. Notgeld der Bergstadt u. Sommerfrische Lehesten im Thüringerwald im Juni 1921. Bürgermeisteramt: Obenaus. GÜLTIG BIS 31. DEZEMBER 1921 MERZDORF & FROSCH, SAALFELD a.S. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Lehesten sits in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia, a small town whose economy was built almost entirely on the extraction and cutting of roofing slate — an industry that had run there since the medieval period. This note was issued at the height of Germany's postwar Notgeld wave, when thousands of municipalities printed their own small-denomination scrip to address a severe shortage of circulating coin. Merzdorf & Frosch in nearby Saalfeld handled a considerable volume of Thuringian municipal Notgeld during this period.
The 1921 date places this issue in the second, more collectible phase of Notgeld production, when many towns were printing explicitly for the philatelic market rather than genuine monetary need.