5 Pfennig - Lissa

Lissa — known today as Leszno, Poland — issued this zinc notgeld piece during the acute metal shortages of World War I, when the Imperial German government had stripped copper and nickel from circulation for munitions production. Municipal authorities across the Posen region were left to improvise small change independently. Zinc was the expedient of last resort: cheap, available, and deeply unpopular with the public for its tendency to corrode in pocket use.

The Funck 302.1 attribution places this among the earlier, more straightforward civic emissions rather than the later collector-targeted fantasy pieces that flooded the market after 1920.