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50 Pfennig History Series - Issue 2 - 1342
| Issuer | Stadt Arnstadt (City of Arnstadt, Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue and red letterpress Notgeld note with a wave-line guilloche underprint throughout. The large blue numeral '50' dominates the centre, superimposed by a dark red heraldic eagle displayed. At the top, the issuing legend is set in Gothic blackletter script; to the lower left, a validity inscription appears in four lines, also in Gothic script, while the serial number and an authorising manuscript signature appear at the lower right. The designer's name 'A. PAUL WEBER' is printed in sans-serif capitals in the bottom margin below the frame. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 1342 Erfolglose Belagerung Arnstadts durch die Erfurter |
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| Comments |
A. Paul Weber is the detail worth pausing on. He later became one of Germany's most recognized graphic artists of the twentieth century, known for his lithographs and his long, complicated entanglement with National Socialist politics — but in 1921 he was a young commercial illustrator taking municipal notgeld commissions across Thuringia. Arnstadt's History Series gave him room to work with actual narrative content rather than decorative filler, which distinguishes these issues from the bulk of notgeld printed in the same period.
The "1342" in the series title refers to a specific year in Arnstadt's documented history, each note functioning as a miniature historical broadsheet. The printed date of 30 April 1945 is almost certainly a catalog or auction transcription error — notgeld of this type was a product of the 1921 hyperinflationary runup, not the final day of the Third Reich.