Catalog
1 Pfennig - Gleiwitz Drahtwerke
| Issuer | Drahtwerke Gleiwitz (Wire Works Gleiwitz, Germany) |
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| Year | |
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| Value | 1 Pfennig (0.01) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse features a plain outer border of large raised beads encircling the entire field. Within this border, the circular legend * DRAHTWERKE GLEIWITZ * arcs around a concentric inner pearl ring, with the word WERTMARKE appearing at the base. The central field, enclosed by the inner beaded circle, bears the large raised numeral '1' denoting the denomination. The overall design is utilitarian and typographic, consistent with wartime industrial emergency token coinage. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | DRAHTWERKE GLEIWITZ 1 WERTMARKE |
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| Additional information |
Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland) was a major industrial center in Upper Silesia, and the Drahtwerke — a wire manufacturing operation — issued notgeld tokens like this one during the acute small-change shortages that plagued German industry in the early 1920s. Factory-issued pfennig tokens were a practical solution: workers received them as part of wage disbursements and spent them at company facilities, keeping currency circulating within a closed economic loop. The region's contested status following the 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite added a layer of instability to ordinary commerce that made private token issues all the more common.