Sandow was a small industrial settlement in Lower Lusatia, and notgeld pfennig pieces like this one were issued by local employers — in this case Paul Steinbock — to manage wage payments and in-house transactions when small-denomination coinage vanished from circulation during and after the First World War. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel had been requisitioned for the war effort years earlier.
Sandow was a small industrial settlement in Lower Lusatia, and notgeld pfennig pieces like this one were issued by local employers — in this case Paul Steinbock — to manage wage payments and in-house transactions when small-denomination coinage vanished from circulation during and after the First World War. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel had been requisitioned for the war effort years earlier.