10 Pfennig - Frankenthal

Frankenthal issued this iron notgeld piece in 1919 as the post-armistice economic collapse left Germany's small municipalities without adequate Reichsmünze coinage for everyday transactions. The city, situated in the Rhine-Palatinate and under considerable political strain as French occupation forces settled into the left bank of the Rhine under the terms of Versailles, needed local scrip simply to keep markets functioning. Iron was the material of necessity — copper and nickel remained scarce after years of wartime requisition.