Germany, Notgeld coins Aachen 10 Pfennig 1920

History

Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com

Description

This is a notgeld struck by the town of Aachen during the 1920 inflation. Aachen, traditionally known in English and French as Aix-la-Chapelle, is a spa and border city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was the preferred residence of Charlemagne, and, from 936 to 1531, the place where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans.

Notgeld (German for "emergency money" or "necessity money") refers to money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This occurs usually when sufficient state-produced money is not available from the central bank. Most notably, notgeld generally refers to money produced in Germany and Austria during World War I and the Interbellum. Issuing institutions could be a town's savings banks, municipality and private or state-owned firms.

Obverse	People (man, woman, child etc.) Woman A market woman facing left and city name bottom right. The image refers to a popular local legend on the building of the cathedral of Aachen, which was only made possible due to a pact with the devil. The devil was cheated and tried to sink the city in sand. Cheated again by the market woman he gives up his plan, and the sand becomes the Lousberg, a hill next to the city. The legend says that the Aacheners ran out of funds when the cathedral was built in the 8th century. Charlemagne could have supplied the money, but was in some remote part of his empire. So they made a deal with the devil: He would help them build/complete the church, and they would leave him the soul of the first person to enter the completed cathedral. What to do? Well, the night before Charlemagne and Pope Leo would officially open the cathedral, the Aacheners caught a bear which would then be "pushed" into the cathedral where the devil was already waiting for his prey. The impatient devil just noticed a two-legged something and took it with him. Full of anger about his error, he ran out of the church - so quickly that one of his thumbs was torn off and got stuck in the cathedral entrance door. The woman from Aachen was about as clever as the Aacheners were with that bear. Of course the devil was looking for revenge, and decided to "bury" the cathedral underneath lots of sand that he would shlep from the North Sea to Aachen. Well, even the devil gets tired once in a while, especially with those huge sacks of sand. So he wanted to make a pause not too far from Aachen. He asked a market (or peasant) woman who was coming from the city how far it was. The woman however noticed his horse foot or his tail. Oh dear, the devil on his way to Aachen? She quickly said that the city and the market were still awfully far away, pointed at her bad shoes and a hard loaf of bread, and said she had bought both, new, at the market. The devil got terribly angry again, left all his sand where he was, ran away and never came back to Aachen. This way a market woman saved the city, and this way the Lousberg (a "mountain" north of Aachen) was created: a heap of sand, left there by the devil. Believe it or not. AACHEN
Reverse	Facial value 1 Grosche means it had a value of 10 Pfennig. The word Öcher is local dialect for Aachener. 1 ÖCHER GROSCHE 19 20
Edge	Plain