50 Pfennig, Notgeld of Dürrenberg, 1921
Notgeld der Stadt Dürrenberg
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00195
- Series year
- 1921
- Actually issued
- 1921
- Signatures
- This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
- Grade
- UNC (IBNS)
As issued; bright colour, sharp corners. Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.
- Estimated value
- $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.
- Dimensions
- 99.5 × 70.1 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldEmergency moneyLocal designWeimar Republic
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Notgeld of Dürrenberg, 1921
- Printer
- Not established
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Zu Dürrenberg wird Salz gekocht, / Zu Artern auch und Kösen; / Zu Hettstedt Kupfererz gepocht / Und Silber aufgelesen. / Und an dem Rand des Quernebachs / Steht Querfurts Burg noch heut'gen Tags, / Berühmten Markt hat diese / Auf ihrer Eselswiese.
At Dürrenberg salt is boiled, at Artern too and Kösen; at Hettstedt copper ore is crushed and silver gathered. And on the bank of the Quernebach stands Querfurt's castle to this day, which holds a famous market on its donkey meadow.
Symbology
- Local scene
- Serienscheine were sold to collectors as much as spent, so towns illustrated whatever they were known for: a legend, a siege, a landmark, a joke in dialect. The picture is the point, not the denomination.
- Expiry wording
- Almost every note states that it lapses a month after being called in - emergency money designed from the outset to stop being money.
What was happening
Notgeld — "emergency money". German towns, districts and firms began printing their own small change in 1914 when metal coin vanished into hoards, and never really stopped until the 1923 stabilisation.
What began as necessity became a craze. By 1921 municipalities were commissioning Serienscheine — beautifully lithographed series aimed squarely at collectors, printed in quantities far beyond any local need, showing local legends, landmarks and jokes in dialect. Selling them to collectors was itself a way of raising money: the town received real marks for notes it hoped would never be redeemed.
The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, produced by places with a few thousand inhabitants.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Notgeld of Dürrenberg, 1921 in the collection.
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