10 Pfennig - Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke

Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke issued this notgeld piece in the closing months of World War I, when Germany's collapsing currency and wartime metal shortages had made small-denomination coinage effectively disappear from circulation. Factory-issued emergency money of this kind was a practical solution — workers needed change for canteen purchases and minor transactions, and the central government was in no position to supply it. HFW was producing fighter aircraft at the time, most notably the Halberstadt CL.II ground-attack biplane, making this one of the more unusual intersections of military-industrial production and monetary improvisation.