The aluminum rupie patterns of 1913 were produced in Berlin as part of a broader colonial monetary reform discussion — the existing silver rupie was chronically undersupplied relative to demand in Deutsch-Ostafrika, and lighter, cheaper alloys were under consideration to ease production costs. Nothing came of it; the outbreak of war in 1914 made the question moot. Lettow-Vorbeck's forces eventually resorted to improvised emergency coinage struck from whatever metal was available at Tabora.
Schaaf 722/G 1 places this among a documented series of alloy trials. Survivors are rare outside institutional collections.
The aluminum rupie patterns of 1913 were produced in Berlin as part of a broader colonial monetary reform discussion — the existing silver rupie was chronically undersupplied relative to demand in Deutsch-Ostafrika, and lighter, cheaper alloys were under consideration to ease production costs. Nothing came of it; the outbreak of war in 1914 made the question moot. Lettow-Vorbeck's forces eventually resorted to improvised emergency coinage struck from whatever metal was available at Tabora.
Schaaf 722/G 1 places this among a documented series of alloy trials. Survivors are rare outside institutional collections.