Warburg's 1917 iron notgeld was issued under the emergency currency provisions that allowed German municipalities to mint their own small-denomination coinage when the Reich's metal supplies collapsed under war demand. By 1917, nickel and copper had been almost entirely redirected to shell casings and military hardware, leaving a genuine gap in everyday commerce that the central government couldn't fill fast enough. The two Funck varieties — 574.1A and 574.1B — differ in minor die details, a common consequence of multiple local contractors producing the same piece under wartime supply constraints.
Warburg's 1917 iron notgeld was issued under the emergency currency provisions that allowed German municipalities to mint their own small-denomination coinage when the Reich's metal supplies collapsed under war demand. By 1917, nickel and copper had been almost entirely redirected to shell casings and military hardware, leaving a genuine gap in everyday commerce that the central government couldn't fill fast enough. The two Funck varieties — 574.1A and 574.1B — differ in minor die details, a common consequence of multiple local contractors producing the same piece under wartime supply constraints.