50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Mulde valley)
Notgeld der Stadt Colditz
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00890
- 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
- 93.7 × 66.1 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldSerienscheinWeimar RepublicSaxonyLandscapeCastle
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Mulde valley)
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Castle above the Mulde valley
- An oval view of Schloss Colditz on its spur over the river, the town's defining scene, shown as a landscape rather than a historical episode.
- Colditz, die liebliche ... komm herzu
- A Low-German invitation verse - "Colditz, the lovely ... come hither" - welcoming the visitor to the river valley, pitched as much at the collector as the citizen.
- 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 landmarks, legends 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 crowning a rocky spur above the water. The wooded valley of the Mulde was the town's great scenic asset, and the 1921 Serienschein returns to it more than once, setting the castle against the river.
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 gives an oval view of the castle above the Mulde valley, with a Low-German invitation to come and see it - Colditz, die liebliche ... komm herzu - the kind of verse that courted the collector-tourist as much as the citizen. 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 tower note [[notgeld-colditz-50-pfennig-heimatturm]].
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt Colditz, 1921 (Mulde valley) in the collection.
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