50 Pfennig, Stadt Freiburg in Schlesien, 1921 (Fürstenstein)
Notgeld der Stadt Freiburg i. Schles.
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00843
- Series year
- 1921
- Actually issued
- 1921
- Signatures
- This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.
- Grade
- UNC (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
- $10 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-10-24.
- Dimensions
- 94.8 × 65.6 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicSilesiaCastles
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Freiburg in Schlesien, 1921 (Fürstenstein)
- Printer
- Grube & Schneider, Freiburg i. Schl.
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Schloss Fürstenstein (Książ)
- The great Hochberg castle above the town, Freiburg's chief landmark, shown with a balloon rising beside it.
- Lasst uns der Himmel kosten
- "Let us taste the heavens", the airy motto matched to the castle-and-balloon scene.
What was happening
By 1921 Notgeld had turned from wartime necessity into a collectors' market. Towns, firms and clubs commissioned lithographed Serienscheine - sets printed far beyond local need and illustrated with whatever a place was proud of.
Freiburg in Schlesien - today Świebodzice in south-western Poland - is a small Lower Silesian cloth and weaving town. Immediately above it stands Schloss Fürstenstein (Polish Książ), one of the largest castles in Silesia and the seat of the princely Hochberg family, who held the title Fürst von Pless (Pszczyna). The castle and its wooded gorge were the great landmark and tourist draw of the district, and Freiburg was its nearest town.
The back of this 50-Pfennig note shows Schloss Fürstenstein with a hot-air balloon aloft, under the motto Lasst uns der Himmel kosten (roughly "let us taste the heavens"). It belongs to the town's September 1921 set printed by Grube & Schneider, whose shared front shows the two-towered town skyline; its sister notes are [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-50-pfennig-burg-eingang]], [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-50-pfennig-burghof]] and [[notgeld-freiburg-schlesien-50-pfennig-tal]].
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Freiburg in Schlesien, 1921 (Fürstenstein) in the collection.
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