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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Weißenfels (City of Weißenfels) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 100 × 70 mm |
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| Obverse description | Dark-ground Notgeld note with a red border frame, the header inscription 'Notgeld der Stadt Weissenfels' in ornate script across the top, with 'Ausgegeben: 1921' at upper left and 'a.d. Saale' at upper right. The central vignette carries the circular municipal arms of Weißenfels — an orange shield charged with a black lion above a town gate, encircled by the legend 'STADT WEISSENFELS' and the date '1547' — flanked by two radiating sunburst roundels each bearing the denomination '50 PFG' in red. The lower panel carries the validity text in Gothic script, with a facsimile magistrate signature at lower right and the artist credit 'By Poyser' at bottom right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Light-ground reverse printed in grey, black and red, with a broad central circular vignette showing a woman and child entering a shoe shop, its window display labelled 'Schuhwaren Ausverkauf' and dated '1880' and '1920' on either side. Flanking the vignette are stylised shoe illustrations under the headings 'Herrenschuh' (left) and 'Damenschuh' (right), with denomination panels '50' in red at each lower corner. A small rectangular vignette at the bottom centre shows the Weißenfels Rathaus, and two rhyming verse inscriptions in Gothic script appear at lower left and lower right; the artist's signature 'K. Lüders' appears at lower right. |
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| Comments |
Weißenfels issued this note as Notgeld — emergency municipal currency — during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar economic dislocation. By 1921, small-denomination metal coins had effectively vanished from circulation, hoarded by a public with no confidence in the mark's stability. Hundreds of German towns and cities printed their own fractional paper to fill the gap, and the resulting flood of Kleingeldersatz became so vast that collectors began driving the market, prompting many municipalities to issue purely speculative series with no real monetary purpose.
Whether this Weißenfels issue circulated genuinely or was produced partly for the collector trade is a reasonable question — the series reference suggests multiple variants within the same type.