Geisa-Rhön - 25Pf

This two-sided print is a 25-pfennig piece of emergency currency known as Notgeld, issued in 1921. One side depicts the town of Geisa as it appeared in 1650, while the reverse features a portrait of Kircher wearing a clerical cap, flanked by rows of Egyptian-style hieroglyphs. The design highlights his local legacy and his fame as a scholar who attempted to decode ancient mysteries.

Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) was a pivotal figure in early modern natural philosophy and Hermeticism. His attempts to interpret Egyptian hieroglyphs as mystical allegories of 'prisca theologia' (ancient theology), most notably in his work Oedipus Aegyptiacus, remained influential in esoteric circles long before the phonetic decipherment of the Rosetta Stone.