Wilhelm Morell operated one of Leipzig's more prominent merchant houses in the nineteenth century, and his privately issued pfennig tokens belong to a broader wave of German trade coinage that filled gaps left by chronic small-denomination shortages — a recurring problem in the German states well before unification rationalized the currency. Municipal and merchant tokens of this type were technically illegal under various edicts but were routinely tolerated because the alternative was no small change at all.
Zinc was the pragmatic choice: cheap, easy to cast, and unattractive enough to discourage hoarding.
Wilhelm Morell operated one of Leipzig's more prominent merchant houses in the nineteenth century, and his privately issued pfennig tokens belong to a broader wave of German trade coinage that filled gaps left by chronic small-denomination shortages — a recurring problem in the German states well before unification rationalized the currency. Municipal and merchant tokens of this type were technically illegal under various edicts but were routinely tolerated because the alternative was no small change at all.
Zinc was the pragmatic choice: cheap, easy to cast, and unattractive enough to discourage hoarding.