25 Pfennig - Rothenburg ob der Tauber St. Wolfgang

Rothenburg ob der Tauber issued this notgeld piece during the acute small-change shortage that followed Germany's postwar economic dislocation — a period when hundreds of municipalities, towns, and even private firms struck their own emergency coinage simply to keep commerce functional. St. Wolfgang, the patron referenced here, was a 10th-century Bishop of Regensburg canonized in 1052, with longstanding veneration in Franconian communities. Iron was the material of necessity, not choice; copper and nickel were still restricted under postwar Allied controls on strategic metals.