10 Pfennigs - Lassan Carl Duden

Carl Duden was a merchant in Lassan, a small Pomeranian port town on the Peene estuary, who issued this zinc notgeld piece during the acute coin shortage that followed Germany's defeat in 1918. Hoarding of metal coinage had stripped everyday commerce of its small change, forcing hundreds of private traders, municipalities, and local businesses to print or strike their own emergency currency. Duden was one of countless merchants who took that step out of practical necessity rather than civic ambition.

Zinc was the default material for struck notgeld of this period — iron and copper had been consumed by the war effort, and zinc was what remained available.