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10 Pfennig - Wilhelm II

Issuer Neu-Guinea Compagnie (New Guinea Company)
Year 1894
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Value 10 Pfennigs (10 Pfennige) (0.10)
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Obverse script Latin
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Reverse script Latin
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Additional information

The Neu-Guinea Compagnie was a chartered trading corporation granted administrative authority over German New Guinea in 1885, effectively running the territory as a private colonial enterprise — complete with its own coinage. This 10 Pfennig piece was struck at the Berlin Mint in 1894, one of only two denominations the company ever issued. The experiment was short-lived: the German Imperial government absorbed the territory's administration directly in 1899, rendering these coins obsolete after fewer than five years of circulation.

Mintage figures were modest, and the coins saw limited actual use among the indigenous population, who largely operated outside the cash economy the company was attempting to impose.