10 Pfennig - Pforzheim

Pforzheim's zinc notgeld issues of 1917 emerged from the same wartime metal shortage that forced municipalities across Germany to deputize local printing offices and small foundries as de facto minting authorities. The imperial government had systematically stripped copper and nickel from circulation for munitions production, leaving city treasuries to improvise. Zinc was grudgingly accepted as the least objectionable substitute — cheap, workable, but prone to corrosion, which explains why high-grade survivors of these municipal pieces are genuinely scarce despite originally modest face values.