Kaiseroda was a potash mining operation in Thuringia, and like many German industrial concerns during the First World War, it issued notgeld tokens when small-denomination coinage disappeared from circulation hoarded or melted for the war effort. Zinc was the material of necessity — copper and nickel had been requisitioned. These company-issued pieces circulated internally among workers and at the mine's associated commissary, effectively functioning as scrip redeemable within a closed economic system.
The Hasselmann reference places this among documented Knappschafts- and Gewerkschafts-issued mining tokens, a category that saw sharp collector interest in the postwar cataloging boom of the 1920s.
Kaiseroda was a potash mining operation in Thuringia, and like many German industrial concerns during the First World War, it issued notgeld tokens when small-denomination coinage disappeared from circulation hoarded or melted for the war effort. Zinc was the material of necessity — copper and nickel had been requisitioned. These company-issued pieces circulated internally among workers and at the mine's associated commissary, effectively functioning as scrip redeemable within a closed economic system.
The Hasselmann reference places this among documented Knappschafts- and Gewerkschafts-issued mining tokens, a category that saw sharp collector interest in the postwar cataloging boom of the 1920s.