10 Pfennigs - Etzdorf Rittergut

Etzdorf Rittergut issued this zinc notgeld piece during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the immediate postwar period, when municipal authorities, estates, and private enterprises alike were legally permitted — and practically compelled — to produce their own emergency coinage. Rittergüter, the old Prussian manorial estates, occupied an unusual position as issuers: semi-private, semi-institutional, with enough local economic weight to make their scrip viable within a tight geographic radius.

The Hasselmann catalog distinguishes a second variety at this reference number, suggesting at least minor die or compositional variation exists within the type.