5 Pfennig - Fürstenwalde an der Spree

Fürstenwalde's 1918 iron notgeld emerged from the same wartime metal shortage that stripped German municipalities of their bronze and nickel coinage — both metals were being consumed by the military at a rate the Reichsbank could not offset with timely small-denomination replacements. Dozens of Brandenburg towns issued their own emergency pieces that year, and Fürstenwalde was among them.

Iron was a poor substitute: it corroded quickly in circulation, making genuinely worn survivors harder to find than the mintage figures might suggest.