Vasárnapi Könyv. 1916. Első félév 20. füzet

This booklet opens a window onto a world where the pressures of total war reshaped everyday life. As armies devoured copper, bronze, nickel and other metals for guns and shells, governments were forced to turn to the most humble of materials—iron—to keep their economies moving. The text explains how discarded household items were collected, melted down, and recast into new coins, replacing the familiar nickel‑based small change with sturdy iron pieces that could be produced without depleting the war effort’s critical supplies.

Beyond the immediate crisis, the work traces the long, winding history of metal as money. It journeys from ancient African barter with iron tools, through the practices of distant island peoples who still trade with forged implements, to the early experiments of European merchants who used simple metal tokens long before modern coinage took shape. Readers get a vivid sense of how necessity, geography and culture have repeatedly turned raw metal into a universal medium of exchange.