50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Heimatturm)
Notgeld der Stadt Colditz
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00861
- 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 × 66.6 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicSaxonyLandmarkLandscape
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Heimatturm)
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Heimatturm bei Colditz
- A tower standing by the Mulde near Colditz, named on the note as the Heimatturm - a local lookout and landmark of the home country.
- Tower above the water
- The silhouette setting of the scene, the wooded river valley that the town prized as its own scenery.
- Castle-gate arms with lion (shared front)
- The arms of Colditz carried on the obverse of the whole series, with Stadt Colditz Sachsen and the 50-pfennig value.
What was happening
Notgeld - "emergency money" - began in 1914 when metal coin vanished into hoards and German towns printed their own small change. By 1920 it had become a collector's craze: municipalities commissioned Serienscheine, lithographed sets printed far beyond local need and illustrated with the town's legends, landmarks and views, sold to collectors for real marks the town hoped never to repay.
Colditz is a Saxon town on the river Mulde between Leipzig and Chemnitz, below a Renaissance castle later infamous as the wartime prison Oflag IV-C. Beyond the castle, the wooded Mulde valley around the town was prized local scenery, and the 1921 Serienschein devotes several of its backs to it rather than to battles.
The notes share a cream-and-red front - Gutschein über 50 Pf, the Colditz castle-gate arms with their lion, Stadt Colditz Sachsen and the validity line Gültig bis auf Widerruf - and differ in the scene on the back. This note shows a tower by the water captioned Heimatturm bei Colditz, a local landmark overlooking the river, with a verse in praise of the home country. Its siblings in the collection are the Swedish-war note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-schweden]], the Hussite note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-husiten]], the stoneware note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-steingut]], the town-hall note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-rathaus]] and the Mulde-valley note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-muldental]].
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Heimatturm) in the collection.
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