1 Pfennig - Hersfeld

Hersfeld's 1919 iron Pfennig is a product of the postwar Kleingeldersatz crisis — the near-total disappearance of small change from German circulation as metal hoarding and wartime requisitions stripped the country of its coinage. Hundreds of German municipalities issued their own emergency money (Notgeld) to fill the gap, and Hersfeld was one of the smaller towns to do so in iron rather than the more common zinc or pressed cardboard.

Iron was a pragmatic but poor choice: the metal corrodes aggressively, and surviving examples in anything above Fine are genuinely uncommon.