Torgelow's 1917 zinc notgeld was necessitated by the near-total disappearance of copper and nickel coinage from German circulation — Reichsbank policy and wartime metal requisitioning had driven small change into hoarding and industrial consumption simultaneously. Municipal authorities across Pomerania and Mecklenburg filled the gap with locally issued emergency pieces, often in zinc, the only non-strategic metal left in practical supply.
The Funck reference places this among the catalogued municipal issues, though Torgelow was a small industrial town and surviving examples in undamaged condition are less routine than notgeld from larger issuing bodies.
Torgelow's 1917 zinc notgeld was necessitated by the near-total disappearance of copper and nickel coinage from German circulation — Reichsbank policy and wartime metal requisitioning had driven small change into hoarding and industrial consumption simultaneously. Municipal authorities across Pomerania and Mecklenburg filled the gap with locally issued emergency pieces, often in zinc, the only non-strategic metal left in practical supply.
The Funck reference places this among the catalogued municipal issues, though Torgelow was a small industrial town and surviving examples in undamaged condition are less routine than notgeld from larger issuing bodies.