Marburg's 1919 iron Pfennig issues belong to the vast wave of German municipal Notgeld produced as the central government lost its grip on small-denomination coinage during and after the First World War. Iron was a wartime concession material — copper and nickel had been redirected to military production years earlier — and by 1919 cities were still striking in it simply because nothing better was available or sanctioned.
Marburg an der Lahn, a university town in Hesse-Nassau, issued several Notgeld denominations through this period. The Funck and Menzel references confirm this piece within a documented local series, though individual piece survival varies considerably across the denominations.
Marburg's 1919 iron Pfennig issues belong to the vast wave of German municipal Notgeld produced as the central government lost its grip on small-denomination coinage during and after the First World War. Iron was a wartime concession material — copper and nickel had been redirected to military production years earlier — and by 1919 cities were still striking in it simply because nothing better was available or sanctioned.
Marburg an der Lahn, a university town in Hesse-Nassau, issued several Notgeld denominations through this period. The Funck and Menzel references confirm this piece within a documented local series, though individual piece survival varies considerably across the denominations.