10 Pfennig - Bitterfeld Bankverein G.m.u.H

Bitterfeld's cooperative bank issued this iron notgeld piece in 1917 as the German war economy stripped copper and zinc from civilian circulation for shell casings and military hardware. The Reichsbank's inability to supply adequate subsidiary coinage forced hundreds of local institutions — banks, municipalities, factories — to produce their own emergency pieces under emergency ordinances permitting private token issuance.

The Bitterfelder Bankverein e.G.m.u.H. was a cooperative credit union rather than a commercial bank, which makes its participation in notgeld issuance slightly unusual; most cooperative institutions of this type deferred to municipal authorities.