5 Pfennig - Grossalmerode von Waitzische Erben

Von Waitzische Erben was a mining and ceramics enterprise in Grossalmerode, a town in Hesse long famous for its crucible clay — the same refractory material that made the region essential to German steel and chemical industries. This notgeld piece was issued in 1918 as the imperial economy collapsed under wartime metal requisitions, leaving municipalities and private firms to fill the coinage vacuum with whatever material remained available. Iron was the unsentimental answer.