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 | Stadt Cöln (City of Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917-1918 |
| 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 | Plain light-toned paper ground with a fine guilloche underprint. The denomination '50 PFENNIG' is set in bold letterpress at centre-left, above a serial number box; the text 'Gutschein über' appears above in a smaller typeface, with a red series letter overprint at upper right. Three lines of small-type legal text confirm acceptance at all municipal cash offices and the guarantee of the Stadtgemeinde Cöln, dated 'Cöln, den 1. Juni 1918', with the Oberbürgermeister's manuscript signature at right. A red circular city seal bearing the Cologne eagle is impressed at lower left, and the issuer legend 'STADT CÖLN 1917' is repeated in a wavy-bordered band at top and bottom, with the printer's imprint along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Uniform grey-toned paper with a textured guilloche ground. A central circular vignette renders a detailed view of Cologne's historic Rathaus (City Hall), its Gothic tower and Renaissance loggia rendered in fine letterpress line work. Flanking the vignette on each side, the numeral '50' appears in white within a hexagonal cartouche set against a guilloche rosette, serving as the sole denomination indicator on this face. |
| 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 |
Cologne's wartime Kleingeldscheine filled a genuine void: the disappearance of metal coinage after 1916, when German authorities systematically withdrew silver and copper from circulation for war production. Stadt Cöln issued these fractional notes under emergency provisions that devolved currency authority to municipalities, a stopgap that produced hundreds of distinct local issues across Germany. M. Dumont Schauberg was primarily a newspaper publisher — the firm behind the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger — pressed into banknote printing by proximity and capacity rather than any specialist credential.