50 Pfennig - Leobschütz

Leobschütz issued this iron notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial coinage system collapsed under wartime metal requisitions. By that point the Reich had already stripped copper, nickel, and aluminum from circulation for armaments, leaving municipalities across Silesia to improvise their own emergency currency in whatever material remained available. Iron was abundant precisely because it was too brittle and corrosion-prone for sustained circulation — a practical compromise that satisfied nobody.

Silesian municipal notgeld from 1918 is frequently encountered in uncirculated condition; the armistice came before much of it saw meaningful use.