5 Pfennig - Schwäbisch Hall

Schwäbisch Hall issued notgeld coinage in 1920 as the postwar metal shortage and rampant inflation made Reichsmünzen effectively disappear from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply unavailable. Iron was the material of last resort for municipal issues of this period, and Hall was among dozens of German towns that filled the gap through civic emergency authority rather than central direction from Berlin.

The city had centuries of minting tradition behind it — the original Heller coin, ancestor of the pfennig in much of southern Germany, took its name from Hall itself.