50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Mülsen St. Jakob, 1921
Notgeld der Gemeinde Mülsen St. Jakob
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00655
- Series year
- 1921
- Actually issued
- 1921
- Signatures
- This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
- Grade
- UNC (IBNS)
As issued: full body, square corners, bright unfaded ink and no fold through the design. 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
- $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-10-23.
- Dimensions
- 97.8 × 75.5 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicSaxonyHumour
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Mülsen St. Jakob, 1921
- Printer
- Ratsdruckerei R. Dulce, Glauchau
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Gueltig bis 30. Sept. 1921.
Valid until 30 September 1921.
Symbology
- The communal arms
- Two lions flanking the village shield, over the signature of the Gemeindevorstand.
- The tavern scene
- A dialect joke - *Doch wie mal zu tief ins Glas sie geguckt, hat der Eine den Anderen angespuckt* - from the back's series of drinkers.
What was happening
Notgeld began in 1914 out of necessity: coin vanished into hoards within weeks of mobilisation and towns printed their own small change because the Reichsbank could not supply enough.
By 1920 it had become something else. The shortage was easing but the collector market was not, and an issuer could take real marks for paper it hoped would never be presented. So towns, firms and clubs commissioned Serienscheine: lithographed sets, printed far beyond any local need, 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.
Muelsen St. Jakob is one of a string of villages - St. Niclas, St. Micheln and the rest - that today make up the municipality of Muelsen in the Zwickau hills of western Saxony. In 1921 it lay under the Glauchau district, which is why its Notgeld was printed in Glauchau. The note was issued on 2 September 1921 and good only to the end of that month.
The back belongs to a set of dialect vignettes of two men in a tavern: here one, having looked too deep into his glass, has spat at the other. Small-change money as village comedy.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Gemeinde Mülsen St. Jakob, 1921 in the collection.
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