50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (chewing tobacco)
Stadt Nordhausen am Harz
Loading the detail view…
Scroll or pinch to zoom · drag to pan · Esc to close
This copy
- Accession
- OM-00641
- 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
- 92.6 × 61.2 mm (±0.6, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinHarzTobaccoLow GermanWeimar Republic
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (chewing tobacco)
- Printer
- Not established
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Cutting a plug of Priem
- Nordhausen's chewing tobacco, boasted in Low German as world-famous.
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 a man cutting a plug of chewing tobacco under the dialect boast Nordhaeuser Priem aess waeltberiehmt, daer kenner keinen andern priemt - Nordhausen chew is world-famous, and whoever has it chews nothing else.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Nordhausen, 1921 (chewing tobacco) in the collection.
Print an album label for this note →
← → to move between notes