Notgeld banknotes from 1920 Deggendorf are on offer here for sale.
It is a small town in Bavaria and is situated on the Danube between the cities of Regensburg and Passau.
These two 50 pfennig notes are both in very good condition and highlight the high level of art work that was commissioned for the banknote series.
AÂ lovely pair of notes for any collection.Â
Design
1920 STADT DEGGENDORF 50 PFENNIG NOTGELD NOTES / emergeny money / serienschein
City: Deggendorf
Date: September 1920
Value: 50 Pfennig x 2
Scenes: Danube River, steam ship, the city Deggendorf with the town hall and the Church of the Ascension, Utto von Metten (Bihsop)
Size: 100 mm x 75 mm
Watermark: Rhein waves
Catalogue: Grabowski D8.5b
History
In Deggendorf, was first the Commercial Bank, which issued different colored paper coupons of 10, 25 and 50 Pfennig in January 1917.
After some reluctance the city council in March 1917 was forced to issue “war coins” for 5, 10, 20 and 50 Pfennig in zinc and to change later on to iron. These should have had validity to six months after the end of the war. Soon they were used for the whole of the Bavarian Forest as payment. The last edition took place even after the war ended in January 1919. Â While these unadorned spare coins were minted to assist the cash shortage, the tendency to turn the emergency money issue into an important source of revenue for the ailing city coffers did not evolve until 1918. For many people in Germany collecting Tokens had become a passion.
Deggendorf also availed itself of this opportunity. In 1918 and 1920 two series were delivered with two values of 25 and 50 Pfennig public. The city magistrate was very carefully with these issues. He employed great artists for the first edition including the Würzburg sculptor Heinz Schiestl (1867 – 1940), as well as for the second issue the Munich painter Augustin Pacher (1863 – 1926). The printing was duly carried out in renowned art printing plants in Lindenberg and Würzburg.
So in came to pass that these artistically valuable, multicolored bills, which were also a good advertisement for Deggendorf emerged. They contained motifs from the city Deggendorf as the town hall and the Church of the Ascension or the stunning surroundings (Egg Castle and the monastery Metten). The coat of arms and the famous Deggendorf potato dumplings were also in eveidence. The certificates found “general recognition”. An English magazine printed it off and called it “the Deggendorf landmark, the dumplings’ made by steaming potatoes, are now the main food of the Germans”. It is beneficial for today’s viewer that the Deggendorf City Council rose at the motives of his political Notgeldscheine about contemporary issues and economic hardships. Nationalist tones and attacks on the young German Republic that characterized the expenditures of many cities, were missing on the Deggendorf Token.
In 1922 the remaining Token had to be withdrawn due to a decision of the German government. The final balance sheet showed that the issue had been worthwhile for the city. The result was a net profit of 68,204.88 Mark. The lion’s share was used for social purposes, the soup Institute Foundation for poor schoolchildren, for the child heir True institution, for the municipal orphanage and for St. Vincent Care.
Inflation increased in 1922 from month to month and reached in the Autumn of 1923, daily new astronomical heights. What problems arose just for the working population from the currency depreciation, may prove a better example. The highest-paid urban workers received in June 1923 a weekly wage of 119,808 or 205,344 Mark, the weekly subsistence level for a family with two children but was 242,582 Mark.
Although since then the issue of Notgeld was strictly forbidden by the imperial authorities, it came in 1923 through the raging inflation the need yet again to issue emergency money in Deggendorf, this time initiated by the six local banks. Now it was no longer about small change, but by amounts of 500,000, one, two, five and ten million marks. The Token of 1923 was pure use money without any artistic claim.
The city was in November 1923 using its last issued Notgeldscheine of 50, 100 or 500 billion marks. They also sold Goldmark vouchers for electric energy. The Preysing bank printed “value Tokens” or the “wheat currency”. You should always get the current value of one kilogram of wheat for the vouchers. At the end it all failed however, and the city was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1924.
Everything was relieved when the inflation ended with the introduction of the pension Marks on November 15, 1923. At this time the Notgeldschein of the city valued at 500 billion marks was converted into the new currency 50 Pfennig.
Prof. Dr. Lutz-Dieter Behrendt