50 Pfennig - Iserlohn

Iserlohn had an ironic advantage in the wartime notgeld scramble: it was an established center of metal manufacturing in the Sauerland, yet by 1917 even locally produced iron was being rationed for the war effort, forcing municipalities to petition for permission to strike emergency coinage from whatever material could be allocated. This piece is one of several iron issues Iserlohn produced that year as the imperial government's copper and nickel requisitions left virtually no conventional coinage in circulation.