I was asked to post some of my scarce notgeld. Here is one of them. It is a 1 mark note from the town of Warnitz. It commemmorates the 1920 plebiscite in Schleswig-Holstein where the locals got to choose to remain part of Germany or become part of Denmark. Germany and Denmark had been fighting over this area since the 1840s. The northern zone went to Denmark and the two southern zones stayed with Germany. Warnitz was in the zone that went to Denmark. Here are a few others. They are not scarce but I like them. Germania is depicted with a broken sword mourning her war dead on this note from Lockstedter. This is the famous crapping baby note from Brakel. This is one of the favorite notes in my entire collection. It has more history per square inch than any other note. It is from the town of Johannisberg. The city shield is depicted showing the head of John the Baptist. The text indicates it was issued to commemmorate the plebiscite in Silesia (near the Polish border -- it went to Germany). On the back is the town hall. The text indicates it was destroyed by the Russians during WWI. I would be remiss if I did not show this piece from Berlin issued for the Colonial Memorial Day -- Germany lost all her colonies as a result of WWI -- depicting Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the commander of the German forces in German East Africa during WWI.
Great stuff! (well, the crapping baby note is a little offbeat, to say the least...!) The note from Lockstedter is certainly powerful. I imagine that scene was played out many times in Germany during and immeadiatly after WWI. I am not sure if what I have here is Notgeld or not, and if it is, where it's from....I have some from Austria that look the same style. I have absolutely no reference on these, and just got items that I liked the designs on.
Billy: Your piece is from the German city of Kronach which is in Bavaria. You can tell German from Austrian notgeld because the German notes are denominated in pfennig/marks while the Austrian pieces are in heller/kroner. There are some German pieces from Schleswig-Holstein that are denominated in both pfennig/mark and ore/kroner the currency of Denmark.
Awesome notes lettow! Thanks for sharing your namesake note! I recall you talking about it in another thread a while back and I'm glad to finally see it here. I have been tempted so many times to pick up notgeld but there are just so many of them. So many amazing designs and variations. It's hard to know where to begin. I love seeing them!
Thanks for the info! I wasn't sure if the Austrian notes WERE notgeld or just regular issues...I don't have any reference for this time period! I will update my stats on my collection to include the new info you have given me for the note I posted Do you know if the city view on the note is of Kronach itself?
It is a view of Kronach. Notgeld simply means "emergency money" and is used as a generic term for the emergency currency in Europe issued during and immediately after WWI. There is French notgeld, Belgian notgeld, Polish notgeld, Hungarian notgeld, etc. Notes from the non-German countries are also referred to as "locals".
Very nice notes lettow!!! Thanks for posting some. I'm off to see if I have that baby note now That was awesome!!
Just because I'm bored and also to study for my German final in 2 days, I thought I would translate the notgeld from Kronach. 50 Pfennig - 50 Cents Die Stadt Kronach - The City of Kronach Dieser Gutschein verliert seine Gültigkeit einen Monat nach er folgter öffentlicher Bekanntmachung - This voucher/coupon forfits his validation a month after he took place official announcement/declaration. - This voucher is not redeemable one month after public announcement. Kronach/1921.Stadtrat: (Can't read his name) - Kronach, 1921, Councilman UNKNOWN That was fun. Anyone have any others they want translated?
My one year of German in HS didn't help me at all with these. I figured since you want the practice and all
The last note is actually in Dutch, fyi! :hail: Some of the script on these are very difficult to read, but I'll give them a shot. 1st one: Notgeld der Rosenstadt Sangerhausen - Emergency currency of the beautiful (like roses) city of Sangerhausen. Robermännchen bin ich genannt im neuen Schloß ist mein alter Stand. Um hier die Kleingeldnot zu heben will ich dir dieses Notgeld geben. - I was called Little-Rober-man in the new castle, and it is my old rank/class/level. And here the little emergency money to be cancelled if you wish, I will give you the coupons. - I was known as Littleman in the castle at my old rank. If you wish to cash in this Emergency coupons, I will give you the coupons. (This is WAY off, the person who wrote this must be using some nontraditional word order to the extreme, and I can't really understand it.) Sangerhausen d. 26. Marz 1921 (d. stands for den) - Sangerhausen, on the 26th of March, 1921. Der Magistrat - The Magistrate/Mayor The second one is too darn difficult to read. And the third one... well... I don't know very much Dutch at all. I'm teaching myself a bit, but not enough to work through that, even with a dictionary.
Are you sure it is Dutch and not Low German? Low German is a dialect spoken in many of the rural areas of north Germany. It is related to Dutch but is a separate language. Munster is in the area that Low German is spoken. High German is the type of German taught outside Germany.
I never even considered that. It very well could be, I just knew that German that obeys it's orthography never has doubled vowels, and Dutch loves double vowels. Makes sense too, I know that in Münster, they speak dialectic German, but would they ever put that on something semi-official. Seemingly so. Actually, it is Low German. I did a couple of searches and found the way nouns are declined in Low German, and it matches up. :kewl:
Very cool! even though I come from a partial German descent I can't understand all but a few basic words. (most of which comes from reading reprints of 1940s era comic books, so the accuracy is questionable, LOL)
So lettow and you other notgeld experts... would you consider this a notgeld? It is a high denomination (I thought emergency notes were only for low) and it is a large note measuring 15cm by 9cm. Any opinions? PS Loved the ones posted to start the tread.
Not that I am an expert, but it does say Gutschein, which would imply that it is Notgeld. (Gutschein means coupon, and it's usually what Notgeld is called on the Notgeld itself.)
German Notgeld comes in many varieties: 1914 Small change notes Verkehrausgaben - small change notes from 1918-19 Mark notes of 1918-1919 Serienscheine - the small, souvenir series notes 1922 - beginning of the inflation period 1923 - hyperinflation period Wertbestandiges - 1923 issues tied to the US dollar after currency reform in November 1923 This note is from the beginning of the hyperinflation period of 1923. It is from Karlsruhe. It is a great note. The face vignette is of people panning for gold in the river in Karlsruhe in the 1800s. The legend below the vignette is a commentary on gold being preferable over paper money.
