50 Pfennig - Mülheim an der Ruhr

Mülheim an der Ruhr issued this iron notgeld piece in 1918 as wartime metal requisitioning had stripped Germany's mints of copper and nickel. Iron was a poor substitute — prone to corrosion, difficult to strike cleanly, and widely resented by the public — but it was what the war economy permitted. Most surviving examples show at least surface rust, making problem-free specimens harder to locate than mintage figures alone would suggest.