10 Pfennig - Trier

Trier's iron notgeld issues emerged from the severe metal shortages that gripped German municipalities during and immediately after the First World War, when the imperial government requisitioned copper, nickel, and zinc for armaments production. Cities were left to improvise, and iron — cheap, abundant, and deeply unpopular as a coinage metal — became the reluctant solution. Trier, as one of the oldest cities in Germany and a major Rhine crossing point, had particular logistical reasons to keep small change circulating.

Iron strikes of this type corrode aggressively in circulation, making uncorroded survivors far less common than mintage figures suggest.