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50 Pfennig Luther Jubilee Series
| Issuer | Eisenach (Thuringia), City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Pfennigs (50 Pfennige) (0.50) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The central vignette, executed in a detailed woodcut manner and signed by the artist, portrays Luther in his guise as 'Junker Jörg' — bearded and dressed in dark robes — seated at a writing desk strewn with open manuscripts and quill, engaged in his translation of the New Testament. Decorative pilaster columns with candelabra motifs frame the scene on either side, and the denomination numeral '50' appears in the upper corners within the border. The lower panel carries the caption in Gothic letterpress, and 'Pf.' abbreviations in red appear in the lower corner cartouches. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | No watermark |
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| Comments |
Eisenach's 1921 notgeld series commemorating the Luther Jubilee — the 400th anniversary of Luther's appearance before the Diet of Worms — is among the more deliberately collectible emissions from the Thuringian notgeld boom. The city had obvious cause to issue a themed series: the Wartburg sits immediately above Eisenach, and Luther completed his German translation of the New Testament there in 1521–22. That geographic legitimacy gave this issue more credibility than most jubilee-themed notgeld, which were often purely speculative collector fodder with no real local connection to the event.
The handmade paper with watermark is unusual for small-denomination emergency currency. J. Adolf Schwarz in Lindenberg im Allgäu was a specialist printer in artistic notgeld and produced high-quality short runs for municipalities across southern and central Germany during 1920–22.