Gnesen — now Gniezno, Poland — held a peculiar dual significance in 1917: it was simultaneously one of the oldest episcopal seats in Polish history and an occupied city under Prussian administration that had been aggressively Germanizing the region for decades. Emergency coinage issued by the Stadtgemeinde that year was a direct consequence of wartime metal requisitioning, which stripped copper and nickel from circulation to feed munitions production. Zinc was the only viable substitute, and municipalities across the German Empire issued their own Notgeld rather than wait for a central supply that never came.
The Funck 162.2 designation indicates a recognized die variant within this type.
Gnesen — now Gniezno, Poland — held a peculiar dual significance in 1917: it was simultaneously one of the oldest episcopal seats in Polish history and an occupied city under Prussian administration that had been aggressively Germanizing the region for decades. Emergency coinage issued by the Stadtgemeinde that year was a direct consequence of wartime metal requisitioning, which stripped copper and nickel from circulation to feed munitions production. Zinc was the only viable substitute, and municipalities across the German Empire issued their own Notgeld rather than wait for a central supply that never came.
The Funck 162.2 designation indicates a recognized die variant within this type.