5 Pfennig - Witten

Witten's 1920 aluminum Kleingeld was issued during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's postwar metal requisitions, when the central government had stripped copper and nickel reserves for the war effort and the Reichsbank could not meet demand for low-denomination circulating pieces. Hundreds of German municipalities issued their own emergency coinage — Notgeld — during this window, and Witten was among them. Aluminum was chosen precisely because it held no strategic or intrinsic value, making hoarding pointless.

The Funck catalog remains the primary reference for this municipal aluminum series.