Wittenburg notgeld

This notgeld is from Wittenburg and has the value of 199 Pfennig. It shows a lonely headstone in a landscape, in the background you can see the outlines of a knight on a horse. Latin inscription on the stone reads: 'Heinricus comes orate p eo' and translates 'Count Heinrich. Pray for him'. Around the edge, the German inscription reads: 'Es starb Graf Heinrich betet fuer ihn. Gedenkstein bei Waschow, Wittenburg aus Heinrichs des Loewen Zeiten' and translates: 'Count Heinrich died. Pray for him. Headstone at Warschow, Wittenburg from the time of Henry the Lion.' This is one of sixty notgeld or 'emergency money' banknotes in the reference collection of packaging material which belonged to the designer Charles Hasler. Notgeld were produced by German towns, villages and municipalities from the end of the First World War until the mid 1920s, when the state bank (the Reichsbank), struggled with wartime metal shortages and post- war hyperinflation. The highly decorative notes soon became collectors items - and still remain to this day. They are double-sided and printed with their monetary value, information about the village, town or province of issue and some colourful illustration.