Gebrüder Bing was one of the largest toy and kitchenware manufacturers in the world before the First World War, but the firm issued these zinc notgeld tokens during the severe coin shortages that gripped Germany from around 1916 onward, when wartime metal requisitions stripped circulation of copper and nickel. Factory scrip of this kind allowed large industrial employers to pay out small denominations to workers when the Reichsbank simply couldn't supply enough coin. Bing's Nuremberg plants employed thousands at their peak, making the volume of such tokens functionally significant rather than merely symbolic.
Gebrüder Bing was one of the largest toy and kitchenware manufacturers in the world before the First World War, but the firm issued these zinc notgeld tokens during the severe coin shortages that gripped Germany from around 1916 onward, when wartime metal requisitions stripped circulation of copper and nickel. Factory scrip of this kind allowed large industrial employers to pay out small denominations to workers when the Reichsbank simply couldn't supply enough coin. Bing's Nuremberg plants employed thousands at their peak, making the volume of such tokens functionally significant rather than merely symbolic.