Selb issued this notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial coinage system buckled under wartime metal requisitions. Zinc was the fallback material across hundreds of municipal issues that year — copper and nickel had been redirected to armaments production since 1915. Selb itself was a porcelain manufacturing town in Upper Franconia, and its civic administration, like dozens of others, was left to solve the small-change shortage independently.
Selb issued this notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial coinage system buckled under wartime metal requisitions. Zinc was the fallback material across hundreds of municipal issues that year — copper and nickel had been redirected to armaments production since 1915. Selb itself was a porcelain manufacturing town in Upper Franconia, and its civic administration, like dozens of others, was left to solve the small-change shortage independently.