2 Øre - Haakon VII WW2 German Occupation

When Germany occupied Norway in April 1940, the collaborationist Quisling government and the Reichskommissariat maintained coin production partly to project normalcy — but copper and bronze disappeared into the German war machine almost immediately. Iron substitutes were introduced from 1941 onward. Crucially, the occupation authorities chose to retain Haakon VII's effigy on circulating coinage rather than replace it, an administrative decision that effectively handed the Norwegian resistance a daily symbol of legitimate monarchy while the king himself governed in exile from London.

Iron coins from this period corrode aggressively, making problem-free survivors genuinely scarce despite reasonable original mintages.