Crailsheim issued this iron notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial coinage system buckled under wartime metal requisitioning — copper, nickel, and zinc had been diverted to munitions production, leaving municipalities to fill the small-change vacuum with whatever material remained available. Iron was the unsentimental answer. Hundreds of German towns issued similar emergency pieces that year, but Crailsheim's run is well-documented across the Funck and Menzel references, suggesting reasonably consistent survival.
Crailsheim issued this iron notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial coinage system buckled under wartime metal requisitioning — copper, nickel, and zinc had been diverted to munitions production, leaving municipalities to fill the small-change vacuum with whatever material remained available. Iron was the unsentimental answer. Hundreds of German towns issued similar emergency pieces that year, but Crailsheim's run is well-documented across the Funck and Menzel references, suggesting reasonably consistent survival.