10 Pfennig - Altena Stahldrahtwerk Rahmer

Altena, in the Märkisches Sauerland, was one of the most concentrated centers of wire and nail production in the German Empire, a legacy of centuries of metalworking along the Lenne River. Rahmer's Stahldrahtwerk issued this zinc notgeld almost certainly during the acute small-change shortage of 1917–1918, when the Imperial government had requisitioned copper and nickel so thoroughly that municipal authorities and private firms alike resorted to emergency issues to pay their workers in usable denominations.

Zinc was the default fallback material for such issues — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular with workers who found it corroded quickly in pocket wear.