50 Pfennig - Querfurt

Querfurt's 1918 iron notgeld coinage emerged from the same wartime metal shortage that stripped Germany's official coinage of its copper and nickel — both requisitioned for shell casings and military hardware. Municipal and district authorities were left to fill the gap themselves, producing locally valid emergency issues of wildly varying quality and material. Iron was the pragmatic solution for dozens of smaller issuers, though it corrodes aggressively in circulation, which explains why clean survivors are harder to find than mintage figures alone would suggest.