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50 Fenigów Bydgoszcz
| Issuer | Magistrat Bydgoszczy (Municipality of Bydgoszcz) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 91 × 59 mm |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Polish-language text on a blue-green guilloche ground with a decorative border of stylised foliate motifs on each side. The upper panel bears the title 'Znaczek wartościowy' in large lettering, with the numeral '50' and denomination abbreviation 'fen' set within an oval guilloche vignette at centre. Below, a horizontal band carries the written-out value 'słowami pięćdziesiąt fenigów', followed by the red serial number, the issuance date 'Bydgoszcz, dnia 11. marca 1920', and the circular city arms of Bydgoszcz at lower left. Two facsimile signatures of the Magistrat appear beneath the issuer's name, with a secondary denomination cartouche reading '50 fen' at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Signature(s) | Haciaszek and Friedländer |
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| Comments |
Bydgoszcz was transferred from German to Polish administration in January 1920 under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, and this note dates from that chaotic transitional period when local authorities were scrambling to maintain basic economic function. The city's German commercial infrastructure — including the printer Richard Koehl, still operating under the firm name Gewerbeverbände Bucher — was still physically intact and simply put to work for the new Polish municipal authority.
The mixed-language signals in this note's production history reflect a city that was, for a brief window, neither fully one thing nor the other. Koehl's press had been printing German municipal scrip; now it was printing Polish.