2 Pfennig - Hildesheim Senkingwerk A.G.

Senkingwerk A.G. was a major enamelware and metalwares manufacturer in Hildesheim that issued notgeld coinage during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany between roughly 1916 and 1922. Private firms, municipalities, and transit companies all resorted to issuing their own iron and zinc tokens when the imperial and later republican mints could not keep pace with wartime metal demands and postwar monetary chaos. Iron was the material of necessity — copper and nickel had long been diverted to the war effort.

Senkingwerk itself survived well into the 20th century before eventually closing, but its factory tokens remain a minor footnote in the dense catalog of Westphalian and Lower Saxon notgeld issues.