20 Pfennig - Geiselhöring

Geiselhöring is a small Bavarian market town that had no business minting its own coinage under normal circumstances. It did so in 1918 for the same reason hundreds of German municipalities did: the wartime metal requisitions had stripped nickel and copper from circulation so thoroughly that the Reichsbank could not keep small change in the hands of ordinary workers. Local authorities were effectively licensed to fill the gap themselves. The nickel-plated zinc construction here is a direct consequence of that shortage — zinc being one of the few metals not yet commandeered for shell casings.