Bodenmais, a small mining and glassworking town in the Bavarian Forest, saw its local economy strained like the rest of Germany when the Reich's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from everyday circulation by 1916–1917. The Rödlische Holzwarenfabrik — a wood goods manufacturer — issued this zinc notgeld to keep small transactions moving among its workers and the local community. Factory-issued emergency coinage of this type was entirely self-interested: without small change, wage payments and canteen purchases ground to a halt.
Zinc was the compromise material, deeply unpopular due to its brittleness and tendency to corrode, but available when better metals were not.
Bodenmais, a small mining and glassworking town in the Bavarian Forest, saw its local economy strained like the rest of Germany when the Reich's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from everyday circulation by 1916–1917. The Rödlische Holzwarenfabrik — a wood goods manufacturer — issued this zinc notgeld to keep small transactions moving among its workers and the local community. Factory-issued emergency coinage of this type was entirely self-interested: without small change, wage payments and canteen purchases ground to a halt.
Zinc was the compromise material, deeply unpopular due to its brittleness and tendency to corrode, but available when better metals were not.