5 Pfennig - Mainz

Mainz issued zinc Notgeld coinage in 1917 under the same wartime metal requisition pressures that stripped German municipalities of their copper and nickel supplies — both metals redirected to shell casings and military hardware. Municipal authorities across the Reich were granted permission to strike emergency coinage in substitute materials, and zinc, despite its tendency to corrode and crack with age, became the de facto stopgap. Survivors in clean condition are notably harder to find than mintage figures suggest.