50 Pfennig, Stadt Zerbst, 1921
Gutschein der Stadt Zerbst
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00632
- Series year
- 1921
- Actually issued
- 1921
- Signatures
- This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
- Grade
- XF (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
- $5.5 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-10-17.
- Dimensions
- 82.9 × 54.1 mm (±1.1, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinAnhaltTown gateWeimar Republic
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Zerbst, 1921
- Printer
- Louis Koch, Halberstadt
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Gutschein. Die Gueltigkeit erlischt 3 Monate nach oeffentlicher Aufkuendigung. Der Magistrat.
Voucher. Validity lapses three months after public notice. The magistrate.
Symbology
- Five-towered arms
- The town wall of Zerbst, between the bear of Anhalt and the shield of Saxony.
- The Frauentor
- Two views of one of the town gates as it looked about 1750, inside and out.
What was happening
By 1920 German Notgeld had stopped being a response to a coin shortage and become a collector's product. Towns, districts and firms commissioned decorative Serienscheine - lithographed sets printed far beyond any local need and sold to collectors, illustrated with whatever the place was proud of: a legend, a famous son, a battle, a trade, a joke in dialect. The result is the most inventive body of graphic design in the history of paper money, made in the years when Germany's currency was dying.
Zerbst was a residence town of the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst - the home where Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst grew up before she went to Russia and became Catherine the Great. Its 50-Pfennig note shows the arms of the town, a red wall of five towers, flanked by the Anhalt bear and the Saxon shield, with two views of the Frauentor gate as it stood around 1750. Printed by Louis Koch of Halberstadt; dated 1 July 1921, serial 61107.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Zerbst, 1921 in the collection.
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