Hamborn issued its own emergency coinage in 1917 as the Imperial German wartime economy stripped conventional metals from circulation — copper and nickel were critical to the war effort, leaving municipal authorities to improvise with zinc. The city, then a rapidly industrializing Rhine-Ruhr commune built almost entirely around steelworks, was absorbed into neighboring Duisburg in 1929 and ceased to exist as an independent municipality.
The Funck 190.3 designation distinguishes this from at least two other Hamborn 10 Pfennig zinc varieties of the same year.
Hamborn issued its own emergency coinage in 1917 as the Imperial German wartime economy stripped conventional metals from circulation — copper and nickel were critical to the war effort, leaving municipal authorities to improvise with zinc. The city, then a rapidly industrializing Rhine-Ruhr commune built almost entirely around steelworks, was absorbed into neighboring Duisburg in 1929 and ceased to exist as an independent municipality.
The Funck 190.3 designation distinguishes this from at least two other Hamborn 10 Pfennig zinc varieties of the same year.