50 Pfennig, Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, 1921
Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00929
- 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
- 92.7 × 57.9 mm (±0.8, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldWeimar RepublicWestphaliaSavings bank
The type
- Type
- 50 Pfennig, Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, 1921
- Rarity
- common
Symbology
- Red value diamond and blue vignettes (obverse)
- A red diamond bearing "50 Pf" ringed by six blue roundels - a rooster, buildings, anchors and the savings-bank monogram - over the magistrate's promise to pay the bearer.
- Ornamental vignette design (reverse)
- A matching arrangement of small ornamental vignettes framing the denomination.
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. Alongside the decorative collector Serienscheine of the inflation years, town treasuries and municipal savings banks went on printing plain small-change notes for everyday use.
This is one of them: a 50-Pfennig note of the Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, the municipal savings bank of the Westphalian linen town, dated "Bielefeld, 15. Mai 1921." It undertakes to pay the bearer against the local draft out of the city's account. Bielefeld became one of the most prolific and celebrated Notgeld issuers of all, famous above all for the linen and silk Stoffgeld of its 700th-anniversary jubilee the same year (see [[notgeld-bielefeld-25-mark-stoffgeld]]); this is the working municipal currency beside it.
The obverse is built around a red diamond bearing "50 Pf," ringed by six blue circular vignettes - among them a rooster, town buildings, anchors and the savings-bank monogram - over the promise "zahle gegen diese Platzanweisung aus unserm Guthaben an Überbringer, Magistrat." The reverse carries a matching ornamental design of several small vignettes.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Pfennig, Stadt-Sparkasse Bielefeld, 1921 in the collection.
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