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50 Pfennig Bankhaus Janßen
| Issuer | Bankhaus Janßen, Westerland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain guilloche underprint fills the note with denomination numerals "50" at upper left and right corners; a serial number field appears at top centre above a Gothic-script promise-to-pay text. Large Fraktur lettering "Fünfzig Pfennig" dominates the lower half, with place and date line at foot. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central circular vignette on a fine guilloche underprint presents the coloured heraldic shield of Westerland, bearing a red lighthouse rising from waves beneath a crenellated castle tower, enclosed in a roundel with motto inscription below. |
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| Comments |
Bankhaus Janßen was a private bank operating out of Westerland on the island of Sylt, and this 50 Pfennig note belongs to the broader wave of German Kleingeldersatz — small-denomination emergency money — that flooded circulation after the First World War as coin metal remained scarce and centrally issued fractional currency lagged behind demand. Private banks, municipalities, and commercial firms across Germany issued their own notgeld to fill the gap, and Janßen was one of the smaller issuers, serving a geographically isolated island community that had limited access to mainland banking infrastructure.
The guilloche underprint is the only anti-counterfeiting measure, modest but consistent with the production standards of provincial notgeld printers of the period.