5 Pfennig - Kempten Mechanische Baumwollspinnerei

Issued by the Mechanische Baumwollspinnerei und Weberei Kempten — a textile mill in the Allgäu region of Bavaria — this iron notgeld token belongs to the wave of emergency small change that flooded German industry during and immediately after World War I, when copper and nickel were redirected to the war effort and official coinage virtually disappeared from daily transactions. Factory-issued tokens like this one functioned as fractional wage scrip, redeemable only within the issuing company's own canteen or company store.

Iron was the default substitute material for most industrial issuers, and it corrodes aggressively — survivors in collectible condition are rarer than mintage figures alone would suggest.