10 Pfennig - Strehlen

Strehlen's municipal savings bank issued this notgeld piece in 1917 as Germany's war economy stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage, leaving iron as the only practical substitute. The Stadtsparkasse — a savings institution rather than a municipal authority in the strict sense — was among hundreds of local German bodies that stepped in to plug a circulation gap the Reich could no longer fill. Iron notgeld from this period corrodes aggressively, and survivors in unrusted condition are considerably scarcer than mintage figures suggest.