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Hi Graham and Gary, Rs. stands for Rückseite (back side or reverse) rather than Right Side. On the back, the text is printed either black for all three denominations, or red for 10 Pf, blue for 25 Pf. and green for 50 Pf. As yours is green, Graham, I think it’s one of the notes I mentioned?
Btw, as far as I can make out,
Grabowski L48.2c would be Tieste 4125.05.07
Grabowski L48.3c would be Tieste 4125.05.12
Grabowski L48.4c would be Tieste 4125.05.17
Grabowski L48.6c would be Tieste 4125.05.27
Since the RS (right side) seems to be the same as the left side, i.e. same size letters, not in color, I’d guess ’03’, listed at $30, or ’22’, listed at $20, depending on watermark and condition, is where your note falls.
Hi Graham, it’s under L48 in H.-L.Grabowski’s catalogue Deutsches Notgeld Band 5 : Deutsche Kleingeldscheine : Amtliche Verkehrsausgaben 1916-1922 (Aachen-Lingen). It would have as a  watermark either Schippen (L48.2c or L48.3c) or Kreuze in Quadraten (L48.4c) or Zickzacklinien (L48.6c). Checking the watermark will narrow it down first; if it’s Schippen, then to decide whether it’s L48.2c or L48.3c you’d have to measure the denominational value on the back, the “50†– if it’s “fat†i.e. 6-6.5 mm wide, then it’s L48.2c; if it’s “half-fat†i.e. 4.5-5mm wide, then it’s L48.3c.
I think! But I’m happy to be corrected! Sometimes the intricacies of difference on the variants make my eyes water and my brain shut down.
The reverse translates as : “This coupon is only intended for transactions with the municipal authorities of Lingen and is valid until the 1st April 1920. All municipal finance offices of Lingen will accept this coupon in payment; they will also upon demand and upon presentation of said coupons of the town of Lingen pay out in national currency and in full sum in marks to the same denominational value.â€
It’s signed on behalf of the town council (der Magistrat) and the Bürgervorsteherkollegium, which was (specifically in the Prussian province of Hannover and its pre-1866 predecessor the Kingdom of Hannover) a committee of citizens elected to scrutinise and oversee and pass a town council’s financial dealings.
On the front, the town’s coat of arms showing three towers (gold on a red field) derives from Lingen’s three town gates – the Castle Gate, the Looken Gate and the Mill Gate. The crown above it is a margrave’s crown which may reference the medieval overlords of the town, either the counts of Tecklenburg or their successors the counts of Lingen.
Hope this helps a bit!
Hi Gary,
Thanks but which one? I noticed they have 3 different 50pfg notes, which one is my note is?
Cheers
Here is the Tieste page for Lingen. It appears that the text is not in color. Regarding the thickness of the numerals, hard to say without something to compare it to. They seem to be half-fat. Can’t see the watermarks. T-GM would know best.
4 variant pieces now. Serial (with and without asterisk) and 2 further pieces stamped ‘Ungultig’ in purple and green. Anyone interested in them as they are on my desk!………
Here is a lovely looking note from Crefeld dating from 1918 and depicting a silk weaver:
The raised stampmark is known/denoted as ‘pragestempel’
Thanks Gary! I think I will add this in. There is an article about the ‘AOK’ on the website as I stumbled upon a great looking note from Saulgau and wanted to write about that.
The red cross article is under serienscheine category so your note fits in well – thanks again.
Under the topic of curiosities, I came across this Salzungen piece yesterday. The Red Cross article reminded me of this because it’s a scene of a hospital.
Anyway, it seems this piece is not a rarity. It’s marked 75 on one side and 95 on the other. There’s a little red stamp that says it’s only worth 75pf.
I have just published my ‘Red Cross‘ issues article. Please have a look from the homepage (right hand side) – latest articles. Let me know of others please:
Gary – These Altrahlstedt notes are very interesting and there is an article on the website about them. They are also included in my ‘German Gems‘ book as I know a lot of collectors will be like you. There are 3 different overprints – 2 in black with different dates and 1 in blue (from memory??) …..so a few to collect!
When these were originally issued (1921) the hyper-inflation wasn’t there. In 1922 ‘remaining’ pieces were then over-stamped and ‘re-issued’.
Serienscheine were issued to collectors and anyone who wanted them for a price. They were extremely popular so ‘everyone’ started to produce them and jump on the band-wagon so to speak.
Here is my website article :
DISCLAIMER: This post is in 3 parts. Why? Because I’m having trouble adding my jpegs to it. Possibly they are too large. Therefore, I’ll do the text here, the next post will have the 1st jpeg, the following post will have the 2nd jpeg. I hope this all works.
Here’s the text:
So, sorting my heaps of notgeld, I come across this set. Thought I really had it made. Here is the sales page from Tieste:
SEE NEXT POST FOR THIS JPEG
How wonderful, I thought. Out of curiosity, I wondered what the several-year-old Lindman catalog had it listed for. Then: “DOOM”. Lindman had a small notation that overprinted issues were NOT Serienschiene. So of course, all of mine had the overprint. All had the same overprint. One sample here :
SEE THE 2ND FOLLOWING POST FOR THIS JPEG
So disappointed. But…life goes on.
Anyway, this made me think: What exactly defines notes as Serienschiene? Did the various towns just hand them out or sell tlhem? And what could you do with them? Bread costing thousands or millions of Mark, what could you buy for 50 pennies or so?
Hi John, it’s the 25 Pfennig note from Rudolph Schade’s inn on the Brocken Mountain (Brockenwirtschaft) near Schierke in the Harz region, catalogued by Grabowski / Mehl as 1177.2 and by Kai Lindman as 1147.1 (without the additional circular stamp). There is indeed a Fairy Tale Forest (Märchenwald) mini theme park at nearby Bad Harzburg, about 6 or 7 miles away, and it may be that this or another attraction of the same name dates back to the early 20th century, but I suspect that this the word and the pictures are just a reference to the fairy-tale nature of the forests both up on the Brocken and all around the Harz. By the time the notes were issued, the innkeeper Rudolph Schade had written a book in 1909 entitled The Brocken and its Features of Natural Beauty in Summer and Winter; he followed up with The Book of the Brocken and The Brocken : Treatises on the Mountain’s History and Nature, both published in 1926 by E. Appelhans & Co., Brunswick.
I was up on the Brocken in 2019 in the most frightfully cold and rainy weather (it was nice when I set out on the Brocken steam train at the foot of the mountain, but the weather changed). The inn is still there at the uppermost train halt, although it was closed for the whole of the Cold War due to the mountain being a major East German listening station. I can say that the forests and the rock formations on the way up and down, a paradise (in better weather) for hikers such as the 19th-century poet Heinrich Heine, might well be described as fairy tale, or at least “other-worldly.”
I get it because I am a member of the ANA. But I only get a digital version. Maybe I can print it, scan it and share it. I’ll try.
I’ve greatly enjoyed all the posts here and have certainly learned a lot since I’m new to collecting notgeld. I thought it would be funny to share this piece of “erroneous notgeld” I found. A few months ago I purchased a pack of 100 pieces of notgeld just to understand more about it and see the diversity and history. However, I think a piece of “money” from the Fairy Tale Theme Park near Brocken made it into the pack. You can see that it looks a lot like notgeld, it looks old-ish, and has a colorful design that could be notgeld. However, my guess is from the fact it says “not for public use” that this is theme park money.
Thought it would be good for a chuckle from you all. Or…maybe one of you actually knows something about this.
Thanks John.
Thanks Chuck. Does anyone have a copy of the article or do you have to have a subscription etc?
For anyone interested there is a very interesting article in the March issue of The Numismatic on Reutergeld. I found it to be very informative.
Hi Tony, the sentence reads : “The notes previously catalogued here are Verkehrsausgaben“. I imagine they were originally catalogued as Serienscheine in earlier editions (Grabowski & Mehl are currently on their 3rd edition of volumes 1 & 2), but now that they’ve been re-catalogued as Verkehrausgaben, the authors have added the note for users of the previous editions (and to save re-numbering the entire catalogue). There’s a similar note for the series of the Osnabrück Freemasons’ Lodge of the Golden Wheel (G / M 1029A1), where the authors have reconsidered an entry made in a previous edition (here they inform the reader that these notes are in fact a modern print run of 1970-73; the information was provided by Lodge members). [Just checked : the Grube Ilse correction was already made for the 2nd edition; the Osnabrück correction appears for the first time in the 3rd edition.] As you say, Lindman doesn’t include the Grube Ilse set in Band 2 : Spezialkatalog – Serienscheine; nor does he include the Osnabrück notes.
The Gr/Mehl entry for Grube Ilse (487) has a couple of sentences in German. Can someone translate it for me please? I am guessing that Grabowski / Mehl is making a point that the set could be serienscheine rather than private verkehrsausgaben pieces? I don’t know why they have given them a serienscheine catalogue number?? My rule, I always stick to, is this…..’if it isn’t catalogued by Lindman in his Band 2 spezial serienscheine catalogue, then it isn’t serienscheine.
Thanks John for the info. What a shame German notgeld ‘missed out’ on this subject matter. The Austrian types I think look superb.
Germany has got its Krampus traditions, mainly in Southern Bavaria near Austria but also in the Upper Palatinate apparently.  There.s even a parade of 400 Krampuses planned in Munich for Advent 2021, which I’d love to get my camera to. Apparently the grotesque figure is also a feature of Advent in other parts of the former Habsburg empire, in Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, South Tyrol and the Trentino. There’s a lot of it about, so it seems, but not on German Notgeld!
I’ve heard he beats them with his birch twigs. It seems funny to me that he doesn’t appear on any German notgeld though…..just Austrian. Maybe Germany is too western for the mythology??
Regarding Krampus, if I recall correctly, he is supposed to bring children a sack of coal for Christmas if they’ve been bad.
Here is an Austrian set of notgeld with an overprint depicting ‘Krampus’. He doesn’t appear on any German notgeld (that I am aware of). He is a kind of demonic opposite of Santa Claus, who rather than giving good children presents, punishes bad children!
FYI – I have just amended the forum rankings so pls don’t worry if yours has changed. The more posts you add, the higher your ranking.
I am aware there are a few niggles with the forum but please just reply to the top (latest) post…..even if the reply is to another thread. I have removed ‘nesting’ so that any new post from now on should show at the very top. Once posted, you may have to reposition to pg 1 (top of the forum) for some unknown reason it might place you somewhere different. I am sure we can all work with it though. It is better than nothing. – thanks in advance.
All the GNCC members are very clever in their own particular way. Together, we all form a fantastic group of specialised collectors. Those with German translation and history skills are particularly helpful to us all. Don’t forget, the more posts you make the higher your ranking goes. I just noticed mine has changed but I didn’t really intend that to happen. I might change the ‘top limit’ of posts made……
I could have used you when I was trying to interpret the sayings on beer steins. Anyway, your title of Guru is well-deserved. My own German consists of spending my first 5 years of life in Vienna, supplemented slightly in later life.
I’ll never forget that I decided I knew enough German to take a 4th semester college course. Class had 8 people, of which all except me had heavy German accents. Instead of reading Max und Moritz type stuff, the teacher threw philosophers at us, Schopenhauer, Heine, etc. Translations were way over my head. I sent them to my father for help and he had trouble with them.
The tests were in English and questions were like: “Compare the philosophy of Kant when he says … to the philosophy of Heine who writes …” I eecked a “C” out of the course. Even spent 1/2 year in Frankfurt for my company in a task force that spoke mostly English. That was 50 years ago. Anyway, with little chance to practice, I’ve become extremely rusty.
Austrian and German are almost identical, perhaps 99% alike. Austrians call potatoes Erdeffeln (earth apples) and Germans call them Kartoffeln. There are a bunch of other words too. But all Austrians will tell you they speak German. I don’t think Austrian is even called a language.
…..but you were right also with Braunschweig…..as pointed out to me by Marcel!!
The bottom left hand side picture shows Raabe!
John – yes you are right but the note is issued and catalogued under Eschershausen. Well done you!
I remembered the name because I had never heard of Wilhelm Raabe before. These are such great touchstones of history and culture.
Can anyone tell me (…..but not Marcel or Charles!!)………what town issued a notgeld which shows this portrait?Â
Here is a nice interesting ‘block of 4’ piece of Austrian notgeld with face values in ‘heller’. The total face value is 1Kr & 80h – very unusual. It was issued for the collector market and you can see that this piece is a 3rd issue of 1500 pieces.
Hi Tony,  voran is an adverb with several meanings and senses in English. It could be mean “Oberhof : out in front” or “Oberhof : ahead of all others” as a simple local patriotic statement, or be an encouraging slogan, in the sense of “Oberhof : ever onwards”.
Thanks Charles – all info now uploaded to the article.
Marcel just gave me ‘OBERHOF’ so I have added that into the ‘spelt out town names’ post.
The notes actually say OBERHOF VORAN. Do you know what that means or refers to ?
By the way, I changed the order of the posts so the newest is at the top. Just reply to that and you should be ok………..I can change it back if members prefer it…..but lets see how it pans out for a few weeks first.
Read from top to bottom: RA N Z E LÂ &Â ST E CH E R : Backpack and Knivers
On the other side of the RA / ST-note we read;
Gen einen Bären zog man aus. Des Schäfers Ranzen wurde raus
Drum ward der Güstener bekannt  Als Ranzelstecher rings im Land
People went to hunt a bear, who got to become the sheperd’s backpack
That’s why the people from Güsten came to be known as Backpack-Knivers in the vicinity
I have just posted the Guesten article under the ‘serienscheine’ topic main menu item.
I have this note. it’s not easy to find one by the way.
(this is about the Hungary P137)
Not really what I wanted as it nested the reply……but we can see what people think.
If some members login to read what is going on at least they can just read downwards.
I have changed the order of the posts so the newest one is at the top rather than the bottom. We can see if this makes things better/easier. To add a new post, the box is still at the bottom of the posts……so use the reply button on the top post……that should do it. I’ll do that now…..
Hi John – brilliant as always
I’ll do an article on them as they are an interesting set and not particularly common. All this wonderful info won’t get lost! It reminds me of the Ditfurt ‘geelbein’ / yellow legs story
Hi Tony, you have to read the left-hand sides RÄ-N-Z-E-L and the right-hand sides ST-E-CH-E-R to give you the word RÄNZELSTECHER.  Ränzelstecher is a nickname for an inhabitant of Güsten (it can be singular or plural). It means : “Knapsack-Stabber”. The legend is on back of the N-E note in the silhouette picture and the poem, about a bear hunt which ended in an unusual and amusing way : “The men went out to hunt a bear, / They ended up getting the knapsack of the shepherd, / And thus the Güstener has since been known / As the Knapsack-Stabber all around the country.” You can see the shepherd with his crook, asleep under a tree in the left hand side of the silhouette. The bear hunters mistake the shepherd’s satchel hanging on the tree for a bear and stab it with a spear.
Whilst writing my article on town names spelt out on notgeld sets…..along with other names of things, places or people, Marcel has pointed me to Gr/Mehl-494.1 Guesten. On the obverses, those 5 pieces spell out RA ST  N E  Z CH  E E  L R. (I haven’t got a picture of the fronts but show the backs below) Can someone tell me what that means pls??
This note is for Egy milliard -1000 ‘B'(billion) pengos. It was issued by the National bank of Hungary. They sometimes have an ‘official’ bank stamp stuck onto them (a physical stamp that is). Hungary’s inflation was indeed worse than the earlier German hyper-inflation. It’s a national issue so isn’t notgeld. Interesting though – thanks Gary.
I came across this article by Googling. Of course, you have to distinguish between currency issued by a federal government that is legal tender, and the notgeld issued by the various towns. I don’t know whether the notgeld from one town would be valid in another town.
The bottom note of the 3 below, taught ne my first phrase of German, many, many years ago. I haven’t learnt a lot in German since then, unfortunately.
‘Badder mit rat‘ – ‘Father take care‘. It is of course referring to a warning the son is giving his Father for his next chess move:
The town of Stroebeck issued another ‘chess’ set
My Muechen piece is definitely slightly smaller…..by 1mm……….so I would say Guinness Book of Records is incorrect
It would greatly depend on where these pieces were cut though as they are hand-cut and presumably by the issuer. Its all interesting!!
I’ve just posted the German-Danish article. Please have a look – it shows up on the homepage on the righthand side as well. (‘Latest articles’ section)
https://notgeld.com/gncc-notgeld-articles/german-danish-notgeld/
Hi Charles, that’s great to know that you have the experience and expertise in those dialects! One of my first Notgeld enthusiasms was the 1920 Schleswig plebiscite and its associated issues, from which I then specialised a little bit in Schleswig Holstein Serienscheine and Verkehrsausgaben. I shall re-visit that part of my collection, and I’m sure I shall be asking you for your kind help. Westphalian and Mecklenburg and other northern dialects still leave me scratching my head occasionally; the dialect of German I speak most fluently is the southwestern Palatine German, and there are relatively few notes from this area as it was firmly under the thumb of French occuption from 1918 to 1930. There are war issues and inflation issues, but Grabowski / Mehl has only two listings for Serienscheine of the region of the Pfalz.
Ok I seem to get it now:
4 attemts (call them experiments) landed on Mars, so I out-economized both yhe Amaricans and the Arabs.
Work of Alfred Hanf, noted expressionist from Erfurt. For more, check Erfurt-Luther, Gebesee, Genthin, Genthin-Bismarck, Sömmerda, Weissensee.
Uploaded as favourite series and for Luther-afficionados; L studied law in Erfurt.
The reverse-sides of these are also a sight to behold, but that’s where the uploads went wrong…..
Possible dupe! I sent this already but it didn’t show-up.
This one’s also double-sided!
There’s another one fm Bunzlau, about as big as the printed surface of the above.
Hi Roeland!- I haven’t heard about the Dinslaken note but someone might know ? The 200 Billionen note from Crefeld is the highest issued notgeld that I am aware of…..but I only ever saw a facsimile of it, which I posted on the website. I know someone who had one though.
Hi all! What’s the highest value Notgeld note ever printed? I’m pretty sure I once read about a Eine Billiarde Mark note from Dinslaken (That’s 1.000.000.000.000.000 Marks, 15 zeroes) that was never issued, but still printed. However, I can’t find anything about it anymore. Did I dream that up? I know of several 20 Billionen and 50 Billionen notes and I think a 200 Billionen from Crefeld?
I have just posted the article for notes that spell out town names and a few extras………
https://notgeld.com/gncc-notgeld-articles/town-names-spelt-out/
Currently, Marcel is winning on the double-sided smallest note and I am still winning for the uniface piece. Any other challengers!!??
Thanks Marcel – I will add those place names to the article I am writing
Salzwedel ‘W. Tell’ good shout. I think you might be winning!!
My smallest notes are from Salzwedel: Marken-Versand W.Tell
Other places spelled-out: Quedlinburg: Kreis and Gräfenhainichen: Stadt
Hi Dan Gerken,
I do hope you speak German, if so, I hope the following link may be of value to you:
Förderkreis Alte Kirchen Berlin-Brandenburg;
altekirchen.de   broschure-2017-gesamt.pdf
On first scan interesting articles including materiala on Luther.
Or maybe there’s a Google-translator-programme!
Happiness, keep nose pointed to sky.
Ch.
PS: I lived in Germany, so I might be able to help you with translations too.
Hi folks!
this surely isn’t the smallest piece of Notgeld around, but I guess it’s the smallest item to figure as “banknote”, and not as a one-side-printed piece of carton.
Height: approx a 10 Euro-cent coin.
For the newer collectors – This is the 25goldpfennig piece which is the lady’s heel. The 50gpf slightly bigger in size piece is the man’s heel.
Vicken
I just found a clear picture of this piece:
Vorsteher = director o the board,
Gemeinderat = city-council
Ch
Hi Vicken
I think it says TAUSCH Wertschein; Tauschen meaning: to exchange
Dorfreher should be VORSTEHER, Vorstand being the board or town-council,
It is a nice piece of non-inflatory money, with guaranteed value in gold and/or US-Dollars.
Ch.
Hi John,
I would like (but Very humbly indeed!) to add the following: I spent one year with the Dutch Nato-Forces in Schleswig-Holstein, far too short to pick up the local Dithmarscher Platt decently, and I worked in Hamburg for 8 years (minus 1 week). The Dutch and German languages AS SPOKEN are more closely related to each other than any of the both of them is to English, although all 3 of them belong to the same greater language-group. The little poems and Floskel in Dialekt on the Notgeld-Scheine is what makes me collect Northern-German banknotes.
There is a small chance that I might recognize some words in dialect relatively easy concerning form or sound, so if I can be of any help there, just let me know. Just trying is already fun !
Respectully,
Charles
Vicken – I just edited your post with the great link – just so that it opened up in a new window.
I can’t seem to find it though so I will add the link here – thanks again!!
I don’t speak German and have a hard time making out what’s on the shoe leather notgeld because of how dark they are. Would anybody mind checking if I spelled things correctly here?
PÖßNECKER / FAUSCK- / WERT-GCHEIN / 25 / GOLD- / PF. / DER / GEMEINDE- / DORFREHER: / (signature) / 27 / 9 / DER / GEMEINDE- / RAT: / (signature) / 1923
I’m going to add this here in case I forget it:
https://www.das-deutsche-notgeld.de/pm3/pmvisi.htm
site that lists various unusual notgeld. My favorites there are on that page…
I might add an extra section in the article for other spelt out names eg) L U TH E R on the Erfurt notes.
R U D O L S T A D T
I have started an article with the places mentioned so far. I will post on the website in a few days when we have hopefully had a few more suggested…….
Hi Charles, the Stonehenge-like construction on the obverse of the Artern Bergwart note is the logo of Ewald Ludwig Eberhardt’s publishing company, Bergwart in Artern (issuer of the notes). You can see it on the firm’s books published throughout the 1920s (see attached picture), all of them (as far as I can make out) actually written by Engelhardt himself. As a local history enthusiast and esoteric thinker, he seems to be referencing the theory that there was once a prehistoric temple to Woden (Odin) on the local mountain, on or near the site of the later castle of Kyffhausen. This is on account of the mountain upon which the castle is sited being referred to in a document of the nearby monastery of Walkenried, dated 1277, as the Wotansberg : Woden’s Mountain. Engelhardt imagines it as a kind of sun temple using a circle of henge megaliths, centred on a cultic statue or totem, similar to the legendary Irminsul.
Hi Gary, danke für das Kompliment, as they say. I’m fortunate that in my younger days I had the pleasure of working in Germany and studying Germanistik in London and Mainz, and have kept up a lifelong habit of studying German. As far as dialects go, I find some more accessible than others, and if it’s one I’m unfaniliar with, a rule of thumb is that the vowel sounds vary more than consonant sounds, and where consonants vary there’s often a perceptible pattern. Sometimes actual dialect words and expressions are simply unguessable and need a lot of dictionary work! Having spent little time in the north of Germany, I find the notes in various forms of Low German a real challenge …
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