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50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Gemeinde Ströbeck (Municipality of Ströbeck) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| In circulation to | 31 December 1921 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a large central vignette of a chessboard rendered in fine cross-hatched engraving, framed by ornate baroque scrollwork corner pieces. Flanking the board on both sides are ribbon-scroll banners carrying a historical text in Gothic script referencing Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and the chess privileges granted to the village of Ströbeck on 13 May 1651. Small cherub figures appear at the upper corners of the central frame. Below the chessboard, a panoramic view of the village of Ströbeck is captioned 'Das Flecken Ströbecke A° 1661'. The denomination '50 Pfg.' appears in bold type at upper left and upper right, with the tan floral scroll underprint continuing in the lateral borders. |
| Reverse lettering | 50 Pfg. Das SEREN. Churfe. Fürst zu Halberstadt Herr Herr FRIEDRICH WILHELM der Große Durch l. zu Brandenburg und am 13 May 7. mit den Flecken STRÖBCKE GOSHATZ und CURIER SPIEL Bey ihrer alten Gerechtigkeit zu schützen aus sonder Gnaden verehet und ewigen Gedächtnis hernach verpflichtet gnädigst zugesagt, solches ist zum Das Flecken Ströbecke A° 1661 |
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| Comments |
Ströbeck is a village in Saxony-Anhalt with a documented chess-playing tradition stretching back at least to the 11th century — a tradition so embedded in local identity that chess imagery appeared on its Notgeld issues during the inflationary emergency of the early 1920s. The municipality was one of hundreds of small German issuers producing small-denomination paper during the period when coinage had effectively disappeared from circulation due to hoarding and metal shortages following the First World War.
J. P. Himmer in Augsburg was a prolific Notgeld printer and handled runs for numerous municipalities across southern and central Germany. The chess connection made Ströbeck's notes among the more sought-after of the purely utilitarian municipal issues — collectors acquired them specifically for the novelty, which means genuinely circulated examples are proportionally harder to find than cancelled or unissued remainders.