Munich's municipal gasworks on Dachauerstrasse issued zinc tokens like this one as internal currency for workers — a practice common among large German industrial facilities in the late Imperial and Weimar periods, when small-denomination coinage was chronically undersupplied. The gasworks operated under city ownership, and tokens of this type circulated within the facility's canteen or commissary rather than in general commerce.
Zinc was the material of necessity, not preference — chosen because wartime and postwar metal shortages made brass and copper effectively unavailable for token production.
Munich's municipal gasworks on Dachauerstrasse issued zinc tokens like this one as internal currency for workers — a practice common among large German industrial facilities in the late Imperial and Weimar periods, when small-denomination coinage was chronically undersupplied. The gasworks operated under city ownership, and tokens of this type circulated within the facility's canteen or commissary rather than in general commerce.
Zinc was the material of necessity, not preference — chosen because wartime and postwar metal shortages made brass and copper effectively unavailable for token production.