Belgium's zinc coinage of the early 1940s exists because the German occupation authority requisitioned copper and other strategic metals almost immediately after the May 1940 invasion, forcing the remaining Belgian monetary infrastructure to substitute zinc — a material nobody wanted but everybody accepted. The Banque Nationale continued striking under German supervision, a compromise that kept small change in circulation while stripping the coinage of any material worth hoarding.
Zinc corrodes aggressively in humid conditions, and surviving examples from the occupation years in genuinely clean condition are harder to find than mintage figures suggest.
Belgium's zinc coinage of the early 1940s exists because the German occupation authority requisitioned copper and other strategic metals almost immediately after the May 1940 invasion, forcing the remaining Belgian monetary infrastructure to substitute zinc — a material nobody wanted but everybody accepted. The Banque Nationale continued striking under German supervision, a compromise that kept small change in circulation while stripping the coinage of any material worth hoarding.
Zinc corrodes aggressively in humid conditions, and surviving examples from the occupation years in genuinely clean condition are harder to find than mintage figures suggest.