50 Pfennig, Königsberg in Franken, 1918

This copy

Accession

OM-00442

Series year

1918

Actually issued

1918

council

not read unread

Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.

savings_bank

not read unread

Printed as a facsimile; the engraver's reduction has lost the letter forms.

Grade

XF (IBNS)

Light even toning. 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

$5.5 indicative

Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-26.

Dimensions

72.2 × 47.8 mm (±0.5, from the scan)

Themes

NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicFranconiaBavariaSavings bank

The type

Type

50 Pfennig, Königsberg in Franken, 1918

Printer

Not established

Rarity

common

Symbology

A savings bank's debt

The note says the *Städtische Sparkasse* owes the bearer, not the town. Where a treasury was thin, the savings bank's book was the better guarantee.

November 1918

Dated in the month of the armistice and the revolution. Nothing on the note acknowledges either.

A lion on a ladder

The town arms: a lion climbing, in a plain frame. No picture, no verse - this is money, not a souvenir.

What was happening

This is Kriegsnotgeld, the earlier kind: war emergency money rather than the collectors' issues of 1920-21. Silver and nickel disappeared from circulation within weeks of mobilisation in 1914, and the Reichsbank could not print small notes fast enough to replace it, so towns and districts filled the gap on their own authority and against their own treasuries. These issues look like what they are - functional paper, serially numbered, with a validity tied to a redemption notice rather than a picture on the back.

Issued in November 1918 by the municipal savings bank of Königsberg in Franken - a small Lower Franconian town, not the East Prussian capital - and redeemable within three months of a public announcement.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Königsberg in Franken, 1918 in the collection.