10 Pfennig - Pforzheim

Pforzheim issued these iron notgeld pieces in 1918 as the Imperial German military machine drained copper and nickel reserves to the point of genuine municipal coin shortages. The city, long established as the center of Germany's jewelry and watch-manufacturing industry, had the administrative infrastructure to organize local emergency coinage quickly — though iron was a poor substitute that rusted readily in circulation, leaving surviving examples in collectible condition far scarcer than mintage figures alone would suggest.