5 Pfennig - Berlin Carl Mampe

Carl Mampe was a Berlin spirits producer best known for his Mampe Halb und Halb liqueur, and this zinc piece is a privately issued notgeld token rather than a state coin. As war broke out in 1914, metal coinage vanished from circulation almost immediately — hoarded, melted, or simply absorbed by a public losing confidence in paper — and Berlin merchants began issuing their own small-denomination substitutes within months. Mampe's token was redeemable at his establishment, functioning as fractional change for counter transactions.

Zinc was the obvious material: cheap, available, and officially disfavored for government coinage, which kept private issuers from competing directly with the Reichsbank's turf.