25 Pfennig- Biebrich Kalle and Co

Kalle & Co. was a major German chemical and dye manufacturer in Biebrich am Rhein — later absorbed into the IG Farben conglomerate in 1925. This iron notgeld piece dates to the acute metal shortage of 1917, when the Imperial German government had already requisitioned copper and nickel for war production, forcing municipalities and private firms alike to issue emergency small change in whatever materials remained available. Iron was the stopgap of necessity, not choice, and these pieces corrode readily, making uncorroded survivors harder to locate than their original mintage figures would suggest.