25 Pfennigs - Hirschberg Braunkohlenwerke

Hirschberg Braunkohlenwerke issued this notgeld piece in 1921, when the postwar coal industry in Silesia was operating under acute monetary strain — Reichsbank coins had largely vanished from circulation as metal hoarding intensified ahead of the hyperinflation crisis. Industrial firms, particularly in the mining sector, routinely issued their own zinc emergency currency to pay wages and enable transactions within company-controlled communities. The brown coal fields around Hirschberg depended on a captive local economy where such scrip functioned as de facto tender.