German notgeld might be the most fascinating, FIATFIRE-relevant currency I've ever seen. Notgeld meaning “emergency money,” is similar and related to the hyperinflated currency of the Weimar Republic, but different in a few important ways. During World War I, people were starting hoarding coins for their intrinsic creating an absence of small denomination currency. Local governments, grocery stores, banks and factories created their own temporary paper.
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It circulated locally as money, while simultaneously being recognized as a cultural object. Its limited validity, distinctive design, and identifiable issuers made it suitable for collection from the moment of issue. In practice, Notgeld operated less like standardized national money and more like a network of localized micro-currencies. Each issue carried its own story, identity, and implicit social contract. In this sense, Notgeld may represent the earliest widespread example of currency that was knowingly produced to be kept rather than exchanged.
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The first nonfungible tokens?
While doing research on notegld I came across a collector who presented a lecture at a nusmismatic conference called "Notegld: The first NFTs?"  It's an interesting premise. Notgeld is mostly non-fungible. In practice you couldn't take a 75 pfennig denomination and exchange it for 3 25-pfennig pieces. But more importantly, notgeld immediately became a collectable, a unit of money that is also a cultural artifact. Many notgeld, and there are hundreds of examples, also contained explicit critiques of the fiat monetary system.

 
 

 
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