10 Pfennig - Leipheim

Leipheim's zinc notgeld was issued during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany from 1916 onward, as wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from circulation. Municipal authorities across Bavaria took it upon themselves to plug the gap, and Leipheim — a small town on the Danube between Ulm and Günzburg — was among the lesser-documented issuers. Zinc was the compromise metal of the period: cheap, available, but prone to corrosion, which explains why surviving examples in clean condition are harder to find than the modest original mintage might suggest.