Grünhain is a small Saxon mining town whose wartime notgeld was issued when the German imperial government began requisitioning copper and zinc in 1916, leaving municipalities without the metal needed for small change. Cardboard emergency coinage of this kind was typically a local printer's job, produced in short runs and redeemed — theoretically — once metal returned. Most never were redeemed, which is precisely why so many survive in uncirculated condition.
Grünhain is a small Saxon mining town whose wartime notgeld was issued when the German imperial government began requisitioning copper and zinc in 1916, leaving municipalities without the metal needed for small change. Cardboard emergency coinage of this kind was typically a local printer's job, produced in short runs and redeemed — theoretically — once metal returned. Most never were redeemed, which is precisely why so many survive in uncirculated condition.