1 Pfennig - Niederramstadt Wacker and Doerr

Niederramstadt is a small village in Hesse, and Wacker & Doerr were among the countless German firms that issued private emergency coinage — Lagergeld or company scrip — during the acute small-change shortages that followed World War I. Municipal mints and central authorities simply could not keep pace with demand, leaving local employers to fill the gap with zinc tokens redeemable only at company stores or canteens. The geography of survival in Weimar-era Germany is readable through exactly these pieces.