Pirmasens issued its own emergency coinage in 1918 as the Imperial German war economy collapsed inward — rail disruptions and Reichsbank hoarding had stripped small-denomination metal from daily commerce almost entirely. The city, historically a center of the German shoe industry, relied on local Notgeld to keep wages and market transactions functioning through the final months of the war.
Iron was the only practical option by this point; copper and nickel had been requisitioned for munitions years earlier.
Pirmasens issued its own emergency coinage in 1918 as the Imperial German war economy collapsed inward — rail disruptions and Reichsbank hoarding had stripped small-denomination metal from daily commerce almost entirely. The city, historically a center of the German shoe industry, relied on local Notgeld to keep wages and market transactions functioning through the final months of the war.
Iron was the only practical option by this point; copper and nickel had been requisitioned for munitions years earlier.