I found this awesome leather wallet in a thrift store. It’s had some business cards in it from a guy called Arnold Quasten. He was the conductor of the philharmonic of Mönchengladbach.
He had some notes on someone that he needed for his flute section, and also someone he knew from the war.
It also contained a single German pfennig. So I own Arnold’s last penny.
I found the location of his grave through findagrave. I intend to visit it sometime and leave his penny there.
I’m not certain about the history of this particular person, but there’s a military tradition built around carrying a pfennig.
from https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/military-challenge-coin-origins :
Another lower enlisted tradition began in post-WWII Germany as assigned U.S. troops would carry West German money with them. The exchange rate was so bad that the One Pfennig coin was hardly worth a fraction of a penny and had nearly zero value to American troops. So, only the poorest of the poor would bother saving them — until troops gathered to drink. If someone would shout, “Pfennig check!” everyone would empty their pockets to see who was poor (if you had the near-worthless coin) and who wasn’t (if you were above keeping them). If you were “rich” enough to not need to carry a worthless coin, you were rich enough to buy your brother-in-arms a drink.
