5 Pfennig - Hamm

Hamm's 1917 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipal emergency coinage that flooded Germany after the imperial government requisitioned copper and nickel for war production. Zinc was the compromised substitute — prone to corrosion, difficult to strike cleanly, and deeply unpopular in circulation. Most city administrations expected these pieces to last months, not years.

They lasted longer than the empire that made them necessary.