10 Pfennig - Grafenau Gg. Haering

Haering's notgeld was issued out of practical necessity — the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany following the First World War left local merchants and businesses to fill the gap themselves. Zinc was the material of convenience: copper and nickel had been consumed by the war effort, and zinc tokens could be struck cheaply by local diesinkers with minimal equipment.

Grafenau, a small market town in Lower Bavaria, sits far enough from major minting centers that private merchant issues like this one were particularly common in the region through the early 1920s.