1 Pfennig - Eisleben Mansfeldsche Gewerkschaft

The Mansfeldsche Gewerkschaft was a copper-mining cooperative with roots in the Mansfeld region stretching back to the medieval period — one of the oldest continuously operating mining enterprises in German history. This iron pfennig was issued in 1918 as emergency coinage, or Notgeld, when wartime metal requisitions had stripped Germany's monetary system of the copper and nickel needed for small-denomination coins. Mining concerns like Mansfeld were among the industrial operations best positioned to issue their own token coinage, having both the pressing need to pay workers in small denominations and the metallurgical infrastructure to do it.

Iron was a deliberate compromise — abundant enough to be expendable, durable enough for token use.