Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pfennig - Sonthofen
| Issuer | Sonthofen, Market Town of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | 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 field features the municipal coat of arms of Sonthofen, depicted as a quartered shield: the left half displays three stalks of grain or wheat ears, while the right half bears a diagonal band with a hammer and pick motif, referencing local agricultural and mining traditions. The shield is rendered in fine relief against a plain field. The curved legend MARKTGEMEINDE arcs along the upper periphery, with SONTHOFEN inscribed along the lower periphery. The date 1917 is divided on either side of the shield, with 19 to the left and 17 to the right. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded inner border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse presents the large numeral 50 in bold, prominent relief occupying the majority of the central field, denoting the denomination of fifty Pfennig. The numeral is rendered in a plain, sturdy typeface with no additional inscription or decorative element in the field. The design is enclosed within a continuous beaded border that follows the coin's circumference, leaving the surrounding field otherwise unadorned. The simplicity of the reverse is characteristic of World War I German notgeld emergency coinage. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Sonthofen's 1917 zinc Pfennig issue belongs to the vast wave of Kriegsgeld — emergency municipal coinage — that flooded Germany as the imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from circulation. Zinc was the compromise: abundant, workable, and deeply unpopular with the public, who found it corroded quickly in pocket wear. Thousands of German towns and districts issued their own notgeld during this period, making systematic collection a pursuit that occupied German numismatists for decades after the war ended.