Hattingen's 1917 iron notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency coinage that flooded German circulation after the imperial government began withdrawing copper and nickel coins for war industry use. The Ruhr city had little choice — small change had effectively vanished from commerce by mid-1917, and local authorities across the region were issuing their own stopgap pieces faster than Berlin could regulate them.
Iron was the default substitution metal that year, which is why so many surviving examples show advanced corrosion damage.
Hattingen's 1917 iron notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency coinage that flooded German circulation after the imperial government began withdrawing copper and nickel coins for war industry use. The Ruhr city had little choice — small change had effectively vanished from commerce by mid-1917, and local authorities across the region were issuing their own stopgap pieces faster than Berlin could regulate them.
Iron was the default substitution metal that year, which is why so many surviving examples show advanced corrosion damage.