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50 Pfennigs
| Issuer | Stadt Kamen (City of Kamen, Prussian province of Westphalia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset Notgeld note in dark blue-black letterpress on buff paper, with a guilloche border of repeating oval medallions enclosing the numeral '50' at each corner; the issuer's name 'Stadt Kamen' is set in Gothic blackletter across a rectangular panel at the top, below which the denomination 'Fünfzig Pfennig' appears in large ornate script. The central field carries a three-line redemption clause in smaller Gothic type, with the date 'Kamen, den 19. November 1918' at lower left alongside the circular municipal seal of Kamen and two manuscript signatures above the designations 'Bürgermeister' and 'Beigeordneter'. A serial number in sans-serif type is printed within a decorative cartouche at the bottom centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Stadt Kamen Gutschein über Fünfzig Pfennig Dieser Gutschein wird von der Stadtkasse Kamen in Zahlung genommen. Er verliert seine Gültigkeit einen Monat nach Aufkündigung in der Kamener Zeitung. Die Stadt Kamen haftet für die Einlösung. Kamen, den 19. November 1918. Der Magistrat: Bürgermeister Beigeordneter |
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| Comments |
Kamen's 1918 Notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency currency that flooded the German market after the Reichsbank effectively stopped supplying small-denomination coins — silver had been hoarded and the zinc and iron substitutes were distrusted. Cities and towns issued their own paper to fill the gap, with minimal oversight and wildly inconsistent quality control. Kamen printed locally, which is typical of the smaller Westphalian industrial towns that had neither the budget nor the connections to commission work from major houses.
Series from this period are frequently found with misaligned cuts, a consequence of hand-guillotining in small print shops.