10 Pfennig - Marienstein

Marienstein notgeld emerged from the acute metal shortages of World War I, when the imperial government's requisitioning of copper and nickel for munitions left municipalities scrambling to produce emergency coinage in whatever materials remained available. Zinc was the compromise — abundant, cheap, and deeply unpopular with the public, who correctly suspected it would corrode quickly in circulation.

The Menzel reference number places this among thousands of catalogued German local issues, most struck by towns that had never operated a mint before and never would again.