10 Pfennig - Döbern N. L.

Döbern, a small Lower Lusatian town near the Polish border, issued emergency coinage during the acute coin shortages that gripped Germany in the First World War and its immediate aftermath. Municipal iron pieces like this one filled the gap left when the Reichsbank's copper and nickel stocks were redirected to the war effort. Iron was the material of last resort — prone to rust, universally disliked, and hoarded far less than its metallic predecessors, which is precisely why circulated survivors in decent condition are harder to find than the mintage figures alone would suggest.