10 Pfennig - Ruhla Thiel and Schuchardt

Thiel & Schuchardt was one of several watch-case manufacturers operating in Ruhla, a small Thuringian town that had developed a concentrated metalworking industry by the late nineteenth century. During the acute small-change shortages of World War I, German municipalities and private firms alike issued emergency coinage — Notgeld — to keep local commerce functioning when the Reichsbank could not supply sufficient federal coin. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel had been redirected to military production by 1916.

This piece circulated exclusively among the firm's workers, functioning as a wage token redeemable at company-affiliated vendors.