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50 Pfennig Bonifatius Series
| Issuer | Stadt Ohrdruf (City of Ohrdruf, Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Pfennigs (50 Pfennige) (0.50) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a large polychrome historicist vignette in the style of early twentieth-century book illustration, set within the same Celtic interlace border panels as the obverse. The upper band bears the Gothic-script legend 'BONIFATIVS · DER APOSTEL DER DEVTSCHEN' flanked by the numeral '50' at each corner. The central scene, rendered in brown, ochre, white and green, illustrates the audience of Saint Boniface before Pope Gregory II: on the left, the enthroned pontiff in full papal vestments and tiara reads from a scroll at a lectern attended by a deacon, while on the right a kneeling Boniface receives his mission, accompanied by two standing ecclesiastics, one bearing a processional cross and the other a bishop's crozier, all set beneath Romanesque arches. A green cartouche at the foot carries the two-line caption describing the scene. |
| Reverse lettering | BONIFATIVS · DER APOSTEL DER DEVTSCHEN 50 BONIFATIUS WIRD VON PAPST GREGOR II. ZUR BEKEHR- UNG DER THÜRINGER UND HESSEN BEAUFTRAGT. |
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| Comments |
Ohrdruf issued this Notgeld series under the name "Bonifatius" in reference to the Anglo-Saxon missionary who founded a chapel at Ohrdruf in 725 AD — the earliest documented Christian settlement in Thuringia and, by some accounts, in German lands east of the Rhine. The choice was deliberate civic boosterism at a moment when dozens of competing German municipalities were using Notgeld as a vehicle for local identity and tourist revenue as much as for actual monetary need.
A print run of over twelve million pieces for a small Thuringian town points firmly toward the collector market. By 1921, many municipalities had recognized that philatelists and Notgeld enthusiasts were hoarding these notes unspent — effectively providing interest-free loans to the issuing city.