25 Pfennig - Wilhelm II Pattern

Pattern coinage from the German Empire's final decade rarely reached the public, and this 1908 piece is no exception — it was produced as part of an internal evaluation of possible nickel and tombac alloy substitutes for silver in subsidiary coinage, a cost-cutting exercise that ultimately went nowhere before the war rendered the entire question moot. The silver plating over tombac (a copper-zinc alloy) was a deliberate attempt to mimic the appearance of the existing silver issues while reducing metal costs.