Munich's Dachauerstrasse gasworks issued zinc tokens like this one during the material shortages of World War I, when the imperial government requisitioned copper and brass for munitions production. Municipal utilities across Germany pivoted to privately struck notgeld and trade tokens to manage internal accounting and worker payments when small-denomination coinage effectively vanished from circulation. Zinc was the compromise material — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular with the public, who found it corroded quickly and was easily confused with other tokens of similar size.
Munich's Dachauerstrasse gasworks issued zinc tokens like this one during the material shortages of World War I, when the imperial government requisitioned copper and brass for munitions production. Municipal utilities across Germany pivoted to privately struck notgeld and trade tokens to manage internal accounting and worker payments when small-denomination coinage effectively vanished from circulation. Zinc was the compromise material — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular with the public, who found it corroded quickly and was easily confused with other tokens of similar size.