Gronau's 1918 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first major wave of municipal emergency coinage that swept Germany as wartime metal requisitioning stripped copper and nickel from civilian circulation. Zinc was the fallback — abundant enough, but prone to corrosion, which explains the poor survivors among municipal pieces from this period.
Funck 173.1 is the base variety for this type; collectors should be aware that Gronau issued multiple notgeld pieces across 1917–1921, and catalog cross-referencing between Funck and Menzel occasionally surfaces attribution disagreements on the finer die variants.
Gronau's 1918 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first major wave of municipal emergency coinage that swept Germany as wartime metal requisitioning stripped copper and nickel from civilian circulation. Zinc was the fallback — abundant enough, but prone to corrosion, which explains the poor survivors among municipal pieces from this period.
Funck 173.1 is the base variety for this type; collectors should be aware that Gronau issued multiple notgeld pieces across 1917–1921, and catalog cross-referencing between Funck and Menzel occasionally surfaces attribution disagreements on the finer die variants.