10 Pfennigs - Berlin A.E.G.

A.E.G. issued this token during World War I when the German imperial government requisitioned copper and nickel for munitions, leaving industrial employers scrambling to produce small-denomination substitutes for wage payments and canteen purchases. The Zinkmarken issued by major factories were a practical response to the near-total disappearance of state coinage from everyday transactions. A.E.G., by that point one of the largest electrical engineering firms in the world and a critical supplier to the war effort, had both the need and the infrastructure to produce them in volume.