10 Pfennig - Bad Homburg vor der Höhe

Bad Homburg's zinc notgeld issues of 1918 arrived as the German imperial government had effectively monopolized copper and nickel for war production, forcing municipalities to scramble for whatever base metals remained. Zinc was the unsatisfying answer — brittle, prone to corrosion, and deeply unpopular with the public who had to handle it. Most pieces spent little time in circulation before being tucked away, which explains why survivors typically show minimal wear despite the alloy's structural fragility.