German Notgeld Collector Of 46 Years, From Uk.

Of course, in the scenario that I actually find something unusual, this would of course also be pretty neat.

And this 50 pfennig piece, even if initially looked like a perfectly standard serienscheine type, was in fact a bit unusual...



It took me quite a few seconds of studying the legends to confirm that this note was, in fact, issued by the Leipzig Zoo, and not just by the city of Leipzig commemorating the zoo.

Of course, for all I know it might well be serienscheine anyway, and the condition is not exactly good, but it's an interesting variation from the usual city and town issues. (I hope to get more of such various issues some day.)

Nice examples!

This is an early issue from Janow:



Notice how plain it is, compared to the very colourful pieces of 1920/21. This note is undated but dates from 1915, as per the catalogue. As well as this 5m piece, the town issued a 2m & a 4m note, where all the face-values could be hand-written in and then stamped for validity....on the same 'blank' note.

This is an absolutely lovely looking banknote:



The crossed hammer and chisel, show that Bochum was/is an industrialised city.

It has an interesting reverse too, so I'll post that over the weekend hopefully.

The words around the graphic are all about the note's validity.......which got me thinking......so what or who is the 'witch' like character?
Anyone hazard a guess or does anybody know?

@jbuck - I don't think the figure is 'death' either. Having had a discussion with a couple of my notgeld friends, we think it is a learned monk, shining his lantern through the Bochum coat-of-arms so it lights up like a book. The message perhaps being.....intellect has got us through the hundreds of years and it will get us out of this mess (hyper-inflation) too and it will shine the way forward. The letters 'S' and 'B' in the diamond shape must surely stand for Stadt Bochum, so the town is proud of its history.
It's another great looking note with a story to tell. I keep on stumbling upon things like this and it is what makes collecting notgeld so fascinating. I'll keep adding pictures and stories if people like it?

A rare 100pf piece from Altenwied



In the German text, one can make out the word 'Vaterland'.....'Fatherland'......so obviously a patriotic note of some sort.....