10 Pfennigs

Cottbus issued its own small-denomination emergency paper in 1918 as part of the broader Notgeld phenomenon — a consequence of wartime coin hoarding so severe that German municipal and commercial authorities were effectively forced to print their own substitutes. The German Imperial government had sanctioned local issues by this point, but standardization was nonexistent, which is why Cottbus's 10 Pfennig piece differs visually and physically from virtually every neighboring town's equivalent.

Small-format Notgeld of this period was printed in enormous quantities and largely redeemed and destroyed once coinage returned to circulation, making intact survivors more common in collector sets than as genuine circulated pieces.