Muldenstein is a small industrial settlement on the Mulde River in Saxony-Anhalt, and the paper mill that issued this token operated there during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early 1920s. With Reichsbank coinage effectively disappearing from circulation as metal values outpaced face values, factories and municipalities across Germany issued their own emergency money — Notgeld — to pay workers and facilitate canteen transactions on-site. Zinc was the practical choice: cheap, available, and just difficult enough to counterfeit casually.
Muldenstein is a small industrial settlement on the Mulde River in Saxony-Anhalt, and the paper mill that issued this token operated there during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early 1920s. With Reichsbank coinage effectively disappearing from circulation as metal values outpaced face values, factories and municipalities across Germany issued their own emergency money — Notgeld — to pay workers and facilitate canteen transactions on-site. Zinc was the practical choice: cheap, available, and just difficult enough to counterfeit casually.