10 Pfennig - Camberg

Camberg's zinc notgeld issues of 1917 belong to the first serious wave of German municipal emergency coinage, precipitated by the wartime hoarding of copper and nickel that stripped small denominations from everyday commerce. The imperial government had authorized cities and towns to fill the gap, and hundreds did — Camberg among them. Zinc was the compromise material: abundant enough to requisition, durable enough to strike, but prone to corrosion in circulation, which explains why survivors in clean condition are harder to locate than mintage figures alone would suggest.