10 Pfennig - Neustadt a. Donau

Neustadt an der Donau issued this zinc notgeld piece in 1918 as wartime metal requisitions had stripped German municipalities of the copper and nickel normally used for small change. By that point the Imperial government had been redirecting base metals to munitions production for years, leaving local authorities across Bavaria to fill the coinage vacuum themselves. Zinc was among the least desirable options — brittle, prone to corrosion, and difficult to strike cleanly — but it was available.