A 1921 porcelain coin from Germany, 50 Pfennig Notgeld (emergency issue) of Saxony.

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A 1921 20 Pfennig and 2 Mark to go with it.

 

Did people really use them in everyday life, or were they just novelties?!

 

They were Emergency WWI issues, due to coin shortages at the time. Yes, they were used just like normal coinage.

 

Actually the vast majority of these Meissen porcelain coins were never meant to be circulated and were minted as novelty and commemorative issues. A very limited number were cast for Saxony as a trial to put into circulation but for obvious reasons they were seen as impractical but became popular to collectors much like the vast amount of notgeld coinage minted from other material like iron, zinc and aluminum.

 

Was @Cachecoins answer true for all areas? I'm curious as to why and how time & money was devoted during that apparently desperate time of hyper-inflation to "novelty" issues.

Steve

 

Many German notgeld (paper, metal, and porcelain) were made to sell to collectors. Similar to beanie babies and the baseball card craze of the 90s. That's way there are numerous types still available today at reasonable prices.

Some of my notgeld sets

 

During hyper-inflation these low denominations would have been worthless. Notgeld was only used mainly early on during the war and it was mostly paper and not very interesting paper. Like this one from my collection:



Notgeld Notes or Serienscheine and most coinage were sold to make money as people began collecting them. The one above was meant to be used and is printed on cardboard like a ticket.

Aidenbach / 25 Pfennig Voucher / 1917
Obv: Darlehenskassenverein Audenbach / Gutschein uber 25 pfennig / Aidenbach, den 15 Januar 1917 / Xaver Holzlberger Vorstand / No: 5015 Translation: Loan Association Aidenbach / Voucher over 25 pfennigs / Aidenbach, the 15th of January 1917 / Board of Directors: Xaver Holzlberger / No: 5015
Rev: Dieser gutfchein wird jederzeit vom darlehenskaffenverein Aidenbach Reichs munze eigeleit und verliert drei monate nach dem tage des friedensfenluffes vom gegenwartigen weltkrieges feine giltigkeit Translation: This voucher is initiated by the Aidenbach Reichmunze Loan Register Association and loses its validity three months after the day of the peace of the current world war.
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Most notgeld that was actually used were used during the war or as an alternative to government money after the war and circulation was very limited to certain areas and used as a voucher. The rest were made to be bought and collected as a means of making money.

 

Although most did not see circulation they are still fascinsting which is why I have a very large amount of them.

 

Thanks, everyone. I find these fascinating. I've picked up a few of the porcelain examples from 1921 (my father's birth year). I've also got a run of the government notes during the hyper-inflation time. I would love to run into a pile of the notgeld notes at a reasonable price, and am keeping my eyes open.

Steve

 

Interesting to say the least. Thank you

 

Here is mine from 1921. I have posted it a few times.
The crossed swords are the mark of the Meissen porcelain factory, which produced this example.

 

Here's is an older pic of some porcelain I was organizing and attributing. BTW: technically, most of these including the red/brown pieces aren't porcelain. If you notice the title of Scheuch's reference, the translation is "Money of Porcelain and Clay". However, I still call it porcelain notgeld.

 

They are refered to as red clay porcelain as they tried to make them less fragile...

My favorite example:






STADT OBERAMMERGAU (GERMAN) 1930

Town of Oberammergau (Bavaria) - Large Porcelain Medal Depicting Christ with Angels and Crosses.

This is a medal issued in 1930 by the German city of Oberammergau. On the obverse is a depiction of Christ supported by two angels. On the reverse is the city name, the date, three crosses and crossed swords. The swords are the trademark of Meissen porcelain works. Meissen produced a wide variety of attractive coins and medals in both earth toned and white porcelain.

This was created in commemoration of the town's recreation of the Passion Play in 1930 or the 32nd Passion Play year. It would be performed twice in this decade as the 33rd Passion Play year occurred in 1934 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the vow. This little town, the whole town, recreates the passion okay every 10 year and has done so most decades since 1634.

http://www.cachecoins.org/oberammergau.htm

1934 is when they had a special guest, a rising star in German politics at the time.