This is a piece of German Notgeld — emergency coinage issued by private firms, municipalities, and institutions during the acute metal shortages of World War I and its chaotic aftermath. W. Hoening was a Dortmund-based business that, like hundreds of German commercial enterprises between roughly 1916 and 1921, obtained authorization to strike small-denomination tokens in base metals to keep transactions moving when official coinage had effectively vanished from circulation. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel were requisitioned for the war effort, and zinc was what remained.
This is a piece of German Notgeld — emergency coinage issued by private firms, municipalities, and institutions during the acute metal shortages of World War I and its chaotic aftermath. W. Hoening was a Dortmund-based business that, like hundreds of German commercial enterprises between roughly 1916 and 1921, obtained authorization to strike small-denomination tokens in base metals to keep transactions moving when official coinage had effectively vanished from circulation. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel were requisitioned for the war effort, and zinc was what remained.