Sächsische Waggonfabrik was one of Saxony's major rolling stock manufacturers, and like hundreds of German industrial firms during the notgeld crisis of 1917–1921, it issued its own emergency coinage to compensate for the acute shortage of small-denomination Reichs coins — a shortage driven by wartime metal requisitioning and hoarding. Zinc was the compromise material of the period, cheap and available when copper and nickel had been redirected to the war effort.
Factory-issued notgeld coinage is among the more ephemeral of the series; pieces were redeemed or discarded once Reichs coinage normalized, leaving relatively few in circulation-worn condition.
Sächsische Waggonfabrik was one of Saxony's major rolling stock manufacturers, and like hundreds of German industrial firms during the notgeld crisis of 1917–1921, it issued its own emergency coinage to compensate for the acute shortage of small-denomination Reichs coins — a shortage driven by wartime metal requisitioning and hoarding. Zinc was the compromise material of the period, cheap and available when copper and nickel had been redirected to the war effort.
Factory-issued notgeld coinage is among the more ephemeral of the series; pieces were redeemed or discarded once Reichs coinage normalized, leaving relatively few in circulation-worn condition.