10 Pfennig - Schweinfurt Fries and Höpflinger

Fries & Höpflinger was a Schweinfurt-based hardware and household goods firm that issued this zinc notgeld token during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany from roughly 1916 onward, as wartime metal requisitioning stripped copper and nickel from circulation. Municipal and commercial emergency issues like this one filled the vacuum left by state coinage, with individual businesses effectively issuing their own scrip redeemable against purchases. Zinc was the default material by this point — copper had long been commandeered.