Catalog
50 Pfennig
| Issuer | Magistrat der Stadt Züllichau (City of Züllichau, Prussian province of Brandenburg) |
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| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain grey paper note with text printed in black letterpress. The denomination '50 Pfennige' appears in large Gothic script at the top, followed by a redemption clause stating validity until 1 July 1917, payable by the Städtische Sparkasse Züllichau to the bearer. A circular violet official stamp of the Magistrat der Stadt Züllichau is impressed to the left centre, accompanied by a handwritten ink signature to the right. At the foot of the note, a validation legend reads 'Nur giltig mit dem Namenszug des Rend. Biehahn,' with the issue date 'Züllichau, den 30. Dezember 1916' printed in the body text. |
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| Reverse lettering | Entwertet. |
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| Comments |
Züllichau — now Sulechów in western Poland — was a small Prussian market town whose municipal government issued this note in 1916 as part of the vast Notgeld wave that spread across Germany once the Allied naval blockade strangled the metal supply and drove copper, nickel, and eventually zinc coinage into hoarding. The signatory, Biehahn, held the position of Rendant at the Städtische Sparkasse — essentially the cashier-accountant responsible for the savings bank's books — an unusually junior institutional authority for a note issuer, reflecting how far down the administrative chain the coinage crisis had reached by mid-war.
Locally printed, almost certainly by a small regional press with limited typographic resources. Redemption was theoretically guaranteed by the town, though many such guarantees proved difficult to enforce as Germany's financial position deteriorated after 1917.