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 Saccharin-Fabrik AG
| Issuer | Saccharin-Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft vormals Fahlberg, List & Co., Magdeburg-Südost |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | 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 | Printed in dark brown and green on a light pink central field, the obverse is enclosed within an elaborate green guilloche border with repeating foliate and medallion motifs, the numeral "50" occupying each corner roundel. The central panel presents the denomination in two large ornate circular cartouches positioned left and right, rendered in bold Art Nouveau script as "50 Pg.", with the issuer's name and place of issue set in decorative Fraktur letterpress between them. A validity clause in smaller Roman type runs along the foot of the panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is typeset in black on plain cream paper with no vignette or ornamental border, entirely letterpress in execution. The issuer's name in bold Fraktur heads the note, followed by the centred denomination statement "Gut für 50 Pfennig" in a markedly larger typeface. The predecessor firm's name and location appear in a smaller Fraktur line at the foot, with a faint underprint pattern visible in the paper ground. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Saccharin-Fabrik AG — better known as the company behind the artificial sweetener saccharin, patented by Constantin Fahlberg in 1879 after his work at Johns Hopkins — issued this note as Notgeld during the acute coin shortage that gripped Germany from 1916 onward. Private industrial firms, municipalities, and even small businesses were legally permitted to issue low-denomination emergency scrip when the Reichsbank could not supply sufficient coinage, itself a consequence of wartime metal requisitioning.
That a sweetener manufacturer was printing its own currency tells you something about how thoroughly the German monetary system had fragmented by mid-war.