Kempten's mechanical cotton spinning and weaving works was one of the older textile mills in the Allgäu, and like many German industrial concerns during World War I, it issued its own emergency coinage when small-denomination coins vanished from circulation — hoarded by a public that understood metal's intrinsic value better than the government admitted. This piece is zinc, the wartime fallback material once copper and nickel were diverted to munitions production.
Kempten's mechanical cotton spinning and weaving works was one of the older textile mills in the Allgäu, and like many German industrial concerns during World War I, it issued its own emergency coinage when small-denomination coins vanished from circulation — hoarded by a public that understood metal's intrinsic value better than the government admitted. This piece is zinc, the wartime fallback material once copper and nickel were diverted to munitions production.