2 Pfennig - Elbing

Elbing's iron notgeld emerged from the same wartime metal shortage that stripped German municipalities of their copper and nickel coinage — both metals redirected to shell casings and military hardware after 1915. By 1918, dozens of West Prussian towns were issuing locally sanctioned emergency pfennig pieces in iron, zinc, or pressed cardboard just to keep small transactions functioning.

Elbing itself was a Hanseatic-era port city on the Nogat delta, absorbed into the German Reich after the 1871 unification but with a civic identity stretching back to Teutonic Knight settlement in 1237. It would cease to exist as a German city entirely after February 1945.