100 Mark Lautawerk

Aluminum notgeld is rare enough that most collectors encounter it only in specialist catalogs. Vereinigte Aluminium-Werke A.G. issued this piece from their Lautawerk facility during the hyperinflationary spiral of 1922, when the collapse of the paper Reichsmark created genuine practical shortages of small and medium denomination money — industrial firms, mines, and factories issued their own emergency currency partly to pay workers when Reichsbank notes simply weren't reaching rural or industrial sites fast enough.

Striking the denomination into aluminum rather than printing it on paper was a deliberate choice: the material was locally controlled, unforgeable by ordinary means, and the factory had the tooling to produce it. The irony that a primary aluminum producer paid workers in aluminum is not lost.