Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Winterhilfswerk - 1 Reichsmark
| Issuer | Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig, Germany |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Green-tinted voucher with a large guilloche underprint at centre, bearing a bold numeral '1' in intaglio. Two Reichsadler eagles with swastika emblems flank the central vignette at upper left and right. Redemption conditions are printed in two text columns flanking the central numeral, with the serial number in red at lower left and 'WERTSCHEIN' in bold letterpress along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain cream paper reverse with a recipient details section at top for handwritten name, town and street. The left half carries detailed redemption and settlement instructions in letterpress. The right half lists five eligible expenditure categories. A circular Auszahlstelle ink stamp and handwritten recipient details appear on used examples. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes — the Winter Relief Fund — was a compulsory charity dressed in the language of voluntarism. Workers were expected to donate a portion of their wages each winter season; refusal carried social and professional consequences. These scrip notes were issued as a form of receipt or token denomination, circulating within the WHW system rather than through the Reichsbank, and were not legal tender in any conventional sense.
Giesecke & Devrient's involvement lent the notes a finish indistinguishable from official currency — almost certainly by design. The 1942 issue falls deep into wartime austerity, when the fund's propaganda function had fully overtaken whatever welfare substance it once claimed.