Arnsberg's 1918 iron Pfennig issues belong to the broader wave of German municipal notgeld produced when wartime metal requisitioning stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage entirely. Iron was the compromise — abundant, cheap, and deeply unpopular with the public, who correctly anticipated that it would rust in pocket and purse. The city of Arnsberg, a provincial Westphalian administrative center of no particular monetary significance, found itself improvising currency alongside hundreds of other German municipalities that year.
The Funck reference places this among a numbered series of Arnsberg types, suggesting the city issued multiple denominations or varieties through the same period rather than a single emergency piece.
Arnsberg's 1918 iron Pfennig issues belong to the broader wave of German municipal notgeld produced when wartime metal requisitioning stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage entirely. Iron was the compromise — abundant, cheap, and deeply unpopular with the public, who correctly anticipated that it would rust in pocket and purse. The city of Arnsberg, a provincial Westphalian administrative center of no particular monetary significance, found itself improvising currency alongside hundreds of other German municipalities that year.
The Funck reference places this among a numbered series of Arnsberg types, suggesting the city issued multiple denominations or varieties through the same period rather than a single emergency piece.