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10 Pfennig Merck
| Issuer | E. Merck, Darmstadt |
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| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 63 × 40 mm |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black on an amber-yellow ground, the obverse carries a bold Expressionist-style vignette of the Darmstadt industrial skyline with factory chimneys, domes, and towers rising against radiating sunburst lines. Superimposed across the centre of the skyline is a large numeral '10' within an oval cartouche, flanked on a horizontal banner by the issuer name 'E. Merck' to the left and 'Darmstadt' to the right in Gothic blackletter. The denomination 'Pfennig' appears on a lower ribbon scroll, while the word 'Notgeld' in ornate Gothic script arches across the top of the note within a denticulated rectangular border; a faint cursive script underprint covers the background. |
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| Obverse lettering | Notgeld E. Merck 10 Darmstadt Pfennig |
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| Comments |
E. Merck of Darmstadt issued small-denomination emergency currency — Notgeld — during the severe coin shortages that gripped Germany from roughly 1916 onward. The pharmaceutical and chemical firm, founded in 1668 and still operating today, was one of thousands of private companies, municipalities, and institutions authorized to produce low-denomination scrip when the wartime hoarding of metal coinage left ordinary transactions impossible. Corporate issuers like Merck typically distributed these notes to employees as wage supplements or for use in company facilities.
The 10 Pfennig piece is among the smallest denominations produced in the first wave of private Notgeld, before the inflation issues of 1921–1923 made even high-value notes worthless within weeks of printing.