10 Pfennig - Lette Bernh. Cordes

Issued by a private merchant in Lette, a small village near Oelde in Westphalia, this is notgeld — emergency small-change currency produced during the acute coin shortage that gripped Germany from roughly 1916 onward, as zinc and copper were diverted to the war effort. Municipal authorities, businesses, and even individual tradesmen were legally permitted to issue their own substitute coinage. Bernh. Cordes was one of thousands of small operators who did exactly that, producing tokens redeemable against purchases at their own premises.

Zinc was the material of necessity rather than choice, corroding readily in circulation.