10 Pfennig Erzgebirgische Bank

The Erzgebirgische Bank in Schneeberg-Neustädtel was one of dozens of small regional German institutions forced into emergency note issuance during 1918 as the wartime coin shortage became acute. Pfennig denominations in metal had effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply never minted in sufficient quantity to meet demand. This 10 Pfennig note is Notgeld in the strict sense: a stopgap, not a banking product.

Schneeberg itself had been a silver mining town since the fifteenth century, which gives a certain irony to its bank papering over a metal currency shortage.