1 Pfennig - Trier

Trier's 1917 zinc Pfennig is municipal notgeld, struck because the Imperial German government's wartime metal requisitions had stripped copper from circulation almost entirely. Cities and towns were authorized — and in many cases compelled — to produce their own small-denomination emergency coinage to keep local commerce functional. Trier, one of the oldest cities in Germany and a major Rhineland administrative center, issued these pieces through the municipal authority as the war economy tightened through its third year.

Zinc was the default substitute, though it corrodes readily and strikes poorly under worn dies — a practical compromise nobody was proud of.