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50 Pfennigs
| Issuer | Municipality of Borkum (Prussian province of Hanover) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 Pfgs Gutschein uber Funfzig Pfennige Nordseebad Borkum 10 Juni 1918. Der Gemeinderat (Translation: 50 Pfennigs Voucher for Fifty Pfennigs North Sea resort of Borkum, June 10, 1918. The Municipal Council) |
| Reverse description | The reverse is enclosed within a matching scrollwork border and carries a lively maritime underprint composed of fish, starfish, seashells, and rising air bubbles, evoking the island's North Sea character. At centre, the denomination '50 Pfg.' is printed in large Fraktur blackletter within an unprinted oval reserve, above which the slogan 'Auf Borkum ist alles anders' is inscribed in a cursive hand. The lower portion bears the redemption clause in smaller Fraktur letterpress text. |
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| Comments |
Borkum's 1918 Notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency currency that flooded Germany as the imperial financial system buckled under wartime strain. The Reichsbank had effectively stopped supplying small-denomination coinage to peripheral communities by mid-1917, leaving island municipalities like Borkum to print their own fractional notes simply to keep local commerce moving.
Being a North Sea island, Borkum had no practical recourse to neighboring towns — circulation was self-contained by geography, which makes surviving examples more traceable to genuine local use than equivalent Notgeld from mainland communities.