50 Pfennig, Stadt Greiffenberg in Schlesien, 1920
Notgeld der Stadt Greiffenberg i. Schl.
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00419
- Series year
- 1920
- Actually issued
- 1920
- savings_bank_1
- not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
- savings_bank_2
- not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
- savings_bank_3
- not read unread
Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.
- Grade
- UNC (IBNS)
As issued: full body, square corners, bright unfaded ink and no fold through the design. Estimated from the 600 dpi archival scan, which shows folds, soiling and edge condition but not paper crispness, pinholes, pressing or small repairs.
- Estimated value
- $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-26.
- Dimensions
- 94.5 × 64 mm (±1.1, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicSilesiaTown viewInflation
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Greiffenberg in Schlesien, 1920
- Printer
- Flemming-Wiskott A.-G., Glogau
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Goldner Friede, silberne Taler
- "Golden peace, silver thalers" — the note explains its own existence better than any catalogue could: metal money belongs to peace, paper to war. It was printed by a savings bank in a town that had just lost both.
- Griffins
- Two of them support the arch on the reverse, over a view of the town - the canting arms again, and the reason for the name.
What was happening
Notgeld began in 1914 out of necessity: coin vanished into hoards within weeks of mobilisation and towns printed their own small change because the Reichsbank could not supply enough.
By 1920 it had become something else. The shortage was easing but the collector market was not, and a town could take real marks for paper it hoped would never be presented. So the municipalities commissioned Serienscheine: lithographed sets, printed far beyond any local need, illustrated with whatever the place was proud of - a legend, a famous son, a battle, a joke in dialect. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made by places with a few thousand inhabitants, in the years when Germany's currency was dying.
The fifty carries the best motto in this collection, set across the face in two lines:
Goldner Friede - Silbertaler. Eisern Krieg - papiernes Geld.
Golden peace, silver talers; iron war, paper money. Four words on each side of a dash, and the whole monetary history of 1914 to 1920 in them.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Greiffenberg in Schlesien, 1920 in the collection.
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