5 Pfennig - Rudolstadt

Rudolstadt's 1918 iron notgeld issue came out of the same municipal desperation that produced hundreds of similar emergency pieces across the German states as wartime metal requisitions stripped circulation coinage from everyday commerce. The Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt principality itself had ceased to exist by November of that year, its last ruling prince Albert dissolving the throne amid the revolutionary upheaval that ended the German monarchies — meaning this piece was struck under a political entity that would not survive the year.