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50 Pfennigs

Issuer Stadt Altenburg (City of Altenburg)
Year 1921
Type Local banknote
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Obverse description Letterpress in orange and black on an amber underprint with a stylised wheat-leaf guilloche radiating from centre; at upper centre, the city gate tower of Altenburg is rendered in red and black, flanked by a white hand at left and a red rose at right, both drawn from the civic arms. Bold denomination numerals '50 Pf.' appear within swirling cartouches at lower left and right, while the central panel carries the issuing authority text and validity clause in Gothic Kurrent script above an official red circular municipal seal with two facsimile signatures identified as Oberbürgermeister and Bürgermeister. The printer's imprint runs along the bottom margin.
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Signature(s) Schilles (Oberbürgermeister) and Schuhmacher (Bürgermeister)
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Comments

Altenburg's 50 Pfennig notgeld was printed by the Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik — a playing card manufacturer, not a security printer. The firm had the color lithography equipment and the local contract, which was all that mattered during the notgeld boom when German municipalities were scrambling to cover small-change shortages. The result is noticeably more graphic in character than notes produced by conventional banknote printers.

Two civic signatures appear: Schilles as Oberbürgermeister and Schuhmacher as Bürgermeister — both titles present simultaneously, which reflects Altenburg's administrative structure at the time rather than any redundancy.

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