Breslau ceramic porcelain notgelds coins tokens

Official coin deputy - project

Municipal crafts and arts and crafts school in Breslau

Photo TM Berlin/ 2000EUR

3 Mark 1921

26,0 clay with a grain of ivory
Obverse: large digit 3, below the inscription *MARK*, below the date in an arc, 1921, at the top in an arc the inscription BRESLAU
Reverse: a kneeling figure with a shovel in his hand, planting a tree. A pentabrachial star at the top, a small letter Z at the bottom
Circulation unknown - Scheuch 502 IV, Ringleb 104.1.1

Photo Artur Galas
Allegro/CoinsFeniks/2019/3050zł

2. 5 Mark 1921

26,0 glinka o baras kości słoniowej
Obverse: large digit 5 separating the inscription BRES LAU, above the digit a pentabrachial asterisk, below it a capital letter M, below it a small letter Z
Reverse: a female figure in a long dress, presented in a horizontal position, with a comet above her and a pentabrachial star below her. The date 1921 is in an arc at the bottom
Circulation unknown

In the light of recent research published in the Numismatic Bulletin 2013/1 by Artur Galas, it appears that both coins come from one warpcsat. "Noske, Menzel, Scheuch, Ringleb indicated Bunzlauer ceramic workshops Reinhold & Co. (Bolesławiecki Warpcsaty Ceramiczne Reinhold and S-ka) as the manufacturer of the 3-brand coins; however, they did not provide the source of this information. A review of the Wrocław "period" press allows us to shed a little more light on the history of these coins. Two Wrocław daily newspapers - "Breslauer Zeitung" and "Breslauer Neuste Nachrichten" - published short reports on the Notgeld exhibition opened in December 1921 in the Silesian Museum of Artistic Crafts and Antiquities, which can be associated with the numismatic items described above. Among the numerous curiosities exhibited also included designs of coins with stoneware made for the city of Wrocław by the School of Handicraft and Artistic Crafts. This laconic mention precisely indicates the place where the coin designs were created - Städtische Handwerker - and Kunstgewerbeschule zu Breslau; it also allows you to associate the designer's signature (letter Z ) with Brunon Zschau, professor of sculpture and ceramics at the Wrocław school. It cannot be ruled out that the coins were only designed in Wrocław and then minted at the Reinhold plant, but such a possibility seems unlikely. The prestigious order of the city authorities could have been successfully completed in the ceramic workshops of the Wrocław school, and not with Reinhold, who cooperated closely with another vocational education institution - the Royal Ceramic School in Bolesławiec. For now, it remains a mystery whether three- and five-mark coins were the only denominations of the designed coins.
(BN 2013/1/369)
Special thanks to the owner of coins and the author of the photos, and to Artur Galas for very thorough research and sharing the materials.