10 Pfennig - Erfurt Henry Pels and Co.

Henry Pels & Co. was a Erfurt-based private firm that issued notgeld during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early 1920s. Municipal and commercial issuers flooded the market with zinc, iron, and pressed cardboard pieces when the Reichsbank's coin production could not keep pace with inflation-driven hoarding. Zinc was the material of last resort — cheap, abundant, and deeply unpopular with the public, who rightly suspected it would corrode before the emergency passed.