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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Stadt Köln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 100 × 60 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black and red on grey paper, with a central cartouche framed by ornate guilloche scrollwork and a dotted red border. Within the cartouche, the denomination '50 Pfennig' is typeset in bold red Gothic lettering beneath the issuer inscription 'Stadt Köln / Gutschein über', with a serial number printed in black below. To the lower left, the circular municipal seal of Cologne bears a double-headed eagle, and four red corner medallions each carry the numeral '50'; at the foot of the cartouche, three lines of text specify the legal tender clause, expiry date, and place and date of issue, followed by the facsimile signature of the Lord Mayor. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in black and red on grey paper, with an elaborate engraved border enclosing a central vignette of two 18th-century municipal guardsmen in red coats and tricorn hats, standing back-to-back with halberds before a backdrop of Cologne's medieval city gate and a church spire. Flanking floral guilloche panels in red fill the upper corners, each bearing the cursive inscription 'Stadt' and 'Köln' respectively, while red rosette medallions appear at the mid-lateral margins. The denomination '50 Pfennig' is repeated in both lower corners, and the year '1922' is centred at the foot of the vignette, flanked by red ornamental motifs. |
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| Comments |
Cologne's postwar Kleingeldersatz program produced hundreds of Notgeld denominations, but the Stadt Köln issues of 1922 sit at the tail end of the small-change emergency period — by this point the Weimar inflation was accelerating fast enough that 50 Pfennig notes were becoming economically pointless almost as soon as they were printed. J. P. Bachem was a well-established Cologne Catholic publisher and printer, not a specialist currency house, which accounts for the slightly commercial character of the printing relative to Reichsdruckerei-produced issues.