5 Pfennig Latvia, Mitau, Jelgava

Mitau — now Jelgava — fell under German military occupation in late 1915, and emergency municipal notes like this one were issued to address the immediate collapse of small-denomination coin circulation. The occupying administration retained local civic structures in name, which is why the issuer appears as the City Administration rather than a German military authority.

The Pfennig denomination itself signals the transition: Russian kopeks had effectively vanished from hand-to-hand commerce, and these notes bridged the gap before the German military currency system took hold across the Ober Ost territories.