1 Pfennig - Landsberg an der Warthe

Landsberg an der Warthe — now Gorzów Wielkopolski in western Poland — issued zinc notgeld pfennigs during the acute metal shortages of World War I, when copper and nickel were requisitioned for war production. Municipal authorities across Germany and occupied territories stepped in to fill the resulting coinage vacuum, producing locally authorized emergency pieces of wildly varying quality and survival rates. Zinc was the compromise material: abundant, workable, but prone to corrosion, which accounts for the scarcity of problem-free survivors from this specific issue.