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50 Pfennigs

Issuer Magistrat Oppeln (City of Oppeln, Upper Silesia)
Year
Type Local banknote
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Obverse description The obverse is set against a fine geometric guilloche underprint with corner rosettes and repeating foliate border ornaments. The denomination "50" appears in the upper corners, with the central text block rendered in Fraktur script announcing the obligation of the Stadthauptkasse in Oppeln to pay the bearer. Below the main denomination legend in large Gothic blackletter type reads "Fünfzig Pfennig", followed by the issuing authority "Magistrat Oppeln" and a validity clause in smaller Fraktur text.
Obverse lettering Auf diesen Gutschein zahlt die Stadthauptkasse in Oppeln jedem Einlieferer
Fünfzig Pfennig.
Magistrat Oppeln.
Gültig bis zum Ablauf desjenigen Monats, der auf den Monat folgt, in dem der Magistrat zur Rücklieferung an die Stadthauptkasse aufgefordert hat.
ERDMANN RAABE, OPPELN.
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Comments

Oppeln (now Opole, Poland) was one of hundreds of German municipalities that issued Notgeld during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany from 1916 onward. This 50 Pfennig note was printed locally by Erdmann Raabe, a regional firm — not one of the major security printers — which is exactly what you'd expect from a Magistrat working quickly and cheaply to solve a practical circulation problem.

Upper Silesia's postwar status as a plebiscite territory after 1918 makes precise dating consequential here: Notgeld issued before the March 1921 vote carries different administrative weight than anything issued after, when the region's partition was still being contested between Germany and Poland.

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