1 Reichsmark Pattern

Pattern coinage from 1939 Germany occupies an uncomfortable historical position — these pieces were struck experimentally as the Reich was actively conserving strategic metals ahead of the war it was already planning. Nickel-plated iron represented a cost-reduction approach that would define wartime German coinage, and this Reichsmark pattern was part of that transition testing. The regular circulating 1 Reichsmark had been issued in .500 silver as recently as 1927; by 1939 that was simply no longer acceptable to the armaments economy.

Pn100 is sparsely documented, and confirmed surviving examples are rare outside institutional holdings.