50 Pfennig, Leuchtenburg-Wirtschaft, 1921 (Burg Lauenstein)
Gutschein der Leuchtenburg-Wirtschaft
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00726
- 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 2026-10-24.
- Dimensions
- 106.9 × 70.5 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicThuringiaLeuchtenburgCastles
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Leuchtenburg-Wirtschaft, 1921 (Burg Lauenstein)
- Printer
- J.P. Himmer, Augsburg
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Wird a.d. Leuchtenburg u.d.d. Bank fuer Thueringen bis zum 31. Dez. 1921 in Zahlung genommen.
Taken in payment at the Leuchtenburg and at the Bank fuer Thueringen until 31 December 1921.
Symbology
- Thueringer Leu, Dem Reiche treu
- The barred Thuringian lion on the value side, the motto of loyalty, over the Leuchtenburg.
- Burg Lauenstein
- The border castle of Lauenstein, the Thuringian-Franconian watch, one of the castles in the inn's Serie III.
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.
Kahla is a porcelain town on the Saale in the old duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg - the "S.-A." on its notes - below the Leuchtenburg, a hilltop castle the town and the surrounding Land Altenburg were turning into a war memorial after 1918. In 1921 Kahla and the private bodies around it put out one of the richest Notgeld programs in Thuringia: municipal Gutscheine in several themed sets, the castle inn's own vouchers, a chess congress and a sports tournament. The whole output is catalogued together under Grabowski and Mehl number 668, and nearly every note pairs a common value side with a different picture on the back.
This is not the town's money but the castle inn's. The Leuchtenburg-Wirtschaft, the restaurant on the hill above Kahla, put out its own 1921 vouchers, redeemable at the inn and at the Bank fuer Thueringen in Kahla, signed by the Burgwirt Georg Ohage and carrying German songs and legends on the back.
The value side bears the Thuringian arms - the barred lion, Thueringer Leu / Dem Reiche treu - wreathed in chestnut, over a small view of the Leuchtenburg; signed by the Burgwirt at Leuchtenburg-Saale, 15 June 1921. The back (Serie III, Gruppe 5) shows Burg Lauenstein, the Thuringian-Franconian border watch, with the verse Liebliches Thueringen, Perle im Reich...
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Leuchtenburg-Wirtschaft, 1921 (Burg Lauenstein) in the collection.
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