F.W.L. Poetsch G.m.b.H. was a Hamburg-based firm that issued notgeld tokens during the acute small-change shortages that gripped Germany after World War I, when official coinage all but vanished from everyday transactions. Private companies, municipalities, and even individual merchants filled the gap with their own zinc and iron pieces, most of which were redeemed and melted within a few years — making survivors in decent condition genuinely scarce.
F.W.L. Poetsch G.m.b.H. was a Hamburg-based firm that issued notgeld tokens during the acute small-change shortages that gripped Germany after World War I, when official coinage all but vanished from everyday transactions. Private companies, municipalities, and even individual merchants filled the gap with their own zinc and iron pieces, most of which were redeemed and melted within a few years — making survivors in decent condition genuinely scarce.