50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Oldisleben, 1921 (Münzer-Notgeld, the oak)
Münzer-Notgeld von Oldisleben a. Kyffh.
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00576
- Series year
- 1921
- Actually issued
- 1921
- Signatures
- This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
- Grade
- UNC (IBNS)
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 2026-10-09.
- Dimensions
- 89.2 × 67.7 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinThuringiaGerman Peasants' WarThomas MüntzerWeimar Republic
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Oldisleben, 1921 (Münzer-Notgeld, the oak)
- Printer
- Druck: Karl Naumburg, Kindelbrück
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Zahlt die Gemeindekasse von Oldisleben für diesen Notschein, gültig bis 3 Monate nach Aufruf. Oldisleben, d. 5. VIII. 1921. Der Gemeindevorstand.
The parish treasury of Oldisleben will pay for this emergency note, valid until three months after it is called in. Oldisleben, 5 August 1921. The parish council.
Symbology
- "Münzer-Notgeld"
- A pun that carries the whole series: Münze (money) and Thomas Müntzer, the Peasants'-War leader crushed nearby at Frankenhausen in 1525. The theme ties the village's paper money to its most famous piece of history.
- The defeated peasants fleeing to Frankenhausen (reverse)
- The rout of 15 May 1525 depicted as a burning town and fleeing figures: the massacre at the wagon-fort and the slaughter that followed as the survivors ran into Frankenhausen.
- The oak and the 1575 abbey seal
- A local landmark tree beside the seal of Oldisleben's old Benedictine monastery — a monk, the Agnus Dei and the church, dated 1575 — the same historic emblem the village used on its emergency coins. The monastery itself had been wrecked in the Peasants' War.
What was happening
Oldisleben lies by the Kyffhäuser in northern Thuringia, close to Bad Frankenhausen. Its 1921 emergency money is titled Münzer-Notgeld — a double pun, on Münze ("coin, money") and on Thomas Müntzer, the radical reformer whose peasant army was destroyed just up the road. The whole series is themed on the German Peasants' War of 1525.
Thomas Müntzer (c. 1489–1525) was the apocalyptic preacher who led the revolutionary wing of the Peasants' War and broke bitterly with Luther. On 15 May 1525 the princes — Philip of Hesse, Duke George of Saxony and Count Ernst von Mansfeld — fell on the peasants' wagon-fort outside Frankenhausen and massacred some six thousand of them; a rainbow Müntzer had taken as a sign of divine protection did not save them. Survivors fled into the town of Frankenhausen, where the killing went on. Müntzer was captured there, taken to the Mansfeld stronghold of Heldrungen, tortured, and beheaded near Mühlhausen on 27 May 1525.
This 50-Pfennig note's front shows the "500jährige dicke Eiche b. Oldisleben" — a 500-year-old oak near the village — beside the old seal of Oldisleben's former Benedictine monastery (a monk, the Lamb of God and the abbey church, dated 1575). It is valid until three months after being called in, dated 5 August 1921, over the signature of the parish council; printed by Karl Naumburg of Kindelbrück. The reverse shows a burning town with fleeing figures under the banner Die geschlagenen Bauern fliehen in d. Stadt Frankenhausen — "the defeated peasants flee into the town of Frankenhausen."
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Oldisleben, 1921 (Münzer-Notgeld, the oak) in the collection.
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