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50 Pfennig Skat Series - Players
| Issuer | Stadt Altenburg (Thuringia) |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central vignette shows a full-length figure of a Skat card player in 18th-century costume — red coat, grey wig, hands on hips — set against an ornamental foliate underprint in olive and red. The city arms of Altenburg (a white hand and red rose on a divided shield within a heart cartouche) appear at lower centre. Vertical borders on each side carry a column of five red heart suit symbols, with the denomination "50 Pf." in Gothic blackletter at the four corners. The inscriptions "Skat-geld der Skat-Stadt Altenburg" and the validity clause "Gültig bis 1 Monat nach Aufruf." are integrated within the design, with the date "1921" flanking the central figure. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Die Wiege des Skatspiels Null Stadt Altenburg Solo Grand 50 Pf. |
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| Comments |
Altenburg's claim as the birthplace of Skat — the German trick-taking card game codified there in 1813 — made it practically inevitable that the city would produce novelty Notgeld around the game when the postwar small-change shortage gave municipalities license to get creative. This series, printed by the local playing card manufacturer rather than a conventional security printer, is among the more coherent examples of themed emergency currency: the same factory had been producing playing cards for over a century, so the print quality reflects genuine craft rather than opportunistic outsourcing.
The designer credit "Pix" remains a pseudonym; the identity behind it has never been conclusively established in the Notgeld literature.