4 Reichspfennig

This coin was issued in 1932 amid the Great Depression. Chancellor Heinrich Brüning's government decreed the issuance of this unusual face value on 8 December 1931, hoping that it would replace 5-pfennig coins and thereby help to reduce prices in those times of great economic hardship. The coin was, however, not very well-received by the population as it was awkward to use in a decimal system, and very few orders with the Reichsbank (central bank) were placed by banks and public institutions. Many of these coins circulated only for a short period and quickly returned to the central bank, despite instructions by the government to pay amounts of 2 marks (as a part of wages and salaries) in 4-pfennig coins. The coin was demonetized on 1 October 1933 after little more than a year in circulation. The coin's unpopularity explains its relative scarcity today.

The German population used several nicknames for this coin, most of which mocked the government's naive and largely unsuccessful deflationary policy. The most popular name in general use (and still remembered by coin collectors today) was "Brüning-Taler" ("Brüning dollar", after the then German chancellor Heinrich Brüning). Varieties of this name were "Brüning-Pfennig" and "Brüning-Sechser" ("Sechser" describes a 6-pfennig coin, an allusion to the unusual face value). The Berlin newspaper "Der Tag" even held a contest to find the wittiest name for the coin. Among the proposals sent by readers were names like "Armer Heinrich" ("Poor Heinrich"; after chancellor Heinrich Brüning), "Heinrichs Taler" ("Heinrich's dollar"), "Brünette" ("brunette", a pun on the chancellor's surname), "Heini" (the chancellor's nickname), "Hilfskreuzer" ("auxiliary penny"), "Rettungsmedaille" ("rescue medal"), "Druckknopf" ("press button"), "Proleten-Dollar" ("poor people's dollar"), "Pleite-Groschen" ("bankruptcy penny"), "Nottablette" ("emergency pill"), "Krisenkitt" ("crisis putty"), "Young-Pfennig" ("Young penny", after the Young Plan to settle Germany's World War I reparations) and "Tributgroschen" ("tribute penny").