50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (Finkenburg)
Stadt Nordhausen am Harz
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00640
- 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
- 92.9 × 60.1 mm (±1.6, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinHarzTown viewWeimar Republic
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (Finkenburg)
- Printer
- Not established
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- The Finkenburg
- A historic Nordhausen house, its name (finch-castle) illustrated with the birds themselves.
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.
Nordhausen am Harz was a free imperial city, famous for two things it still trades on - its grain spirit (Nordhaeuser Korn) and its chewing tobacco. Its 1921 Notgeld, dated 1 May and redeemable three months after a public call, carries the town's buildings and worthies; the Gutschein text, the serial and the Roland figure sit on the obverse.
This note shows the Finkenburg, a timbered old town house, with finches (Finken) on the little shields that play on its name.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (Finkenburg) in the collection.
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