50 Pfennig - Aachen Alfred Rethel - Pattern

Aachen's 1920 notgeld program produced both circulating issues and deliberate pattern strikes intended for collectors and civic presentation — Funck 1.15D falls into the latter category. The Alfred Rethel series honored the Aachen-born Romantic painter whose frescoes in the Aachen Rathaus had made him a figure of considerable local pride long before his death in 1859. Iron was the practical metal of postwar emergency coinage, but pattern strikes in the same material were common practice among German municipalities testing dies before committing to full runs.