C. Behrens was a commercial firm in Alfeld an der Leine, Lower Saxony, that issued this zinc notgeld token during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early 1920s. Municipal and private issuers alike filled the gap when the Reichsbank could not keep low-denomination coinage in circulation — zinc was the practical choice, cheap and available when copper and nickel were not.
C. Behrens was a commercial firm in Alfeld an der Leine, Lower Saxony, that issued this zinc notgeld token during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the early 1920s. Municipal and private issuers alike filled the gap when the Reichsbank could not keep low-denomination coinage in circulation — zinc was the practical choice, cheap and available when copper and nickel were not.