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50 Pfennig Rudelsburg
| Issuer | Bad Kösen, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1914-1924) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld voucher in multicolour letterpress, divided into three vertical panels within a heavy black border. The left panel contains a vignette of a medieval knight in full armour holding a large red cross shield, rendered in a woodcut-like style; the right panel shows a seated medieval woman in an orange robe viewed from behind. The central panel presents a colour vignette of Rudelsburg castle ruins set against a cloudy blue sky, flanked by the large numeral '50' in grey at lower left and right. Below the central vignette, a two-line verse text appears in Gothic script, and a validity inscription with the Burgwirt's signature runs along the bottom margin, with the printer's imprint beneath. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Multicolour letterpress reverse with two decorative side panels in dark green, each bearing a stylised floral motif with a red rose bloom at top, flanking a central landscape vignette. The vignette shows the Saale river valley with Rudelsburg and Saaleck castles visible on the clifftops, while a group of medieval figures in a boat occupies the foreground waterway. Large red numerals '50' appear at lower left and right corners, and a line of verse in Gothic script is printed along the bottom edge. |
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| Comments |
Bad Kösen's 50 Pfennig Notgeld from 1921 was printed by Eduard Giltsch of Jena, a firm better known for its scientific and academic illustration work — an unusual choice for emergency currency, and one that likely accounts for the quality of engraving relative to comparable municipal issues of the period.
The Rudelsburg, a ruined 12th-century castle above the Saale valley, was already a fixture of German Romantic nationalism by the time this note was designed by Köthau. Its appearance on Notgeld was as much a local tourism pitch as a design decision — Bad Kösen was a spa town, and these small notes circulated partly as collectibles among visitors from the start.