5 Pfennig - Lichtenau Act. Ges. Glückauf

Issued by Actien-Gesellschaft Glückauf, a colliery operation in Lichtenau, this is a piece of mine scrip — private token currency issued by German coal companies to pay workers in company-controlled credit rather than Reichsmark. The practice bound miners economically to company stores, a system that drew sustained criticism from labor organizers throughout the Wilhelmine period. Iron was the practical choice for low-denomination mine tokens: cheap, abundant in an industrial setting, and sufficiently unappealing to discourage hoarding or export beyond the colliery's immediate economic orbit.