50 Pfennig - Deutsch-Eylau

Deutsch-Eylau — now Iława in northern Poland — issued this iron notgeld in 1916 as the wartime requisition of copper and nickel stripped municipalities of their ability to produce conventional small change. Iron was the Reich's concession material: cheap, abundant, and deeply unpopular with the public for its tendency to rust in pocket and purse. Most pieces from this issue survived in mediocre condition for exactly that reason.