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5 Pfennig - Suhl
| Issuer | City of Suhl |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | Funck#528.7, Men18#30865.4 |
| Obverse description | The obverse features a raised numeral '5' centered within a plain field, enclosed by an inner beaded circle. A circular legend reading 'STADT SUHL KLEINGELDERSATZ' runs between the inner beaded circle and the outer pearl rim, separated by small floral and star ornaments. The design is utilitarian in character, typical of German notgeld emergency coinage of the World War I era. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | The reverse displays the coat of arms of the City of Suhl filling the central field, enclosed by a beaded inner border and an outer pearl rim. The arms depict a crenellated city gate with two flanking towers, each surmounted by a flag, with a rooster standing in the open archway at the base. Rising above the battlements are crossed mining tools — a hammer and pick — referencing the city's historic arms-making and mining heritage. The design is rendered in moderate relief with no surrounding legend. |
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| Additional information |
Suhl issued iron notgeld pfennigs during the post-WWI emergency coinage period, when the collapse of the imperial monetary system and chronic small-change shortages forced hundreds of German municipalities to strike their own circulating tokens. Suhl was already an industrial center — its arms manufacturing trade dated to the sixteenth century — and the city had both the administrative infrastructure and the economic urgency to produce its own coinage quickly.
Iron was the default material by necessity, not choice; copper and nickel had been requisitioned for the war effort years earlier and remained scarce well into the early 1920s.