Mühlhausen issued this zinc notgeld piece in 1917 as Germany's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage production entirely. The city — better known historically as the site of Thomas Müntzer's ill-fated theocratic commune during the 1525 Peasants' War — found itself, nearly four centuries later, printing and striking its own emergency currency like dozens of other Thuringian municipalities scrambling to maintain small-change liquidity. Funck 342.1 distinguishes this from later municipal issues in the series.
Mühlhausen issued this zinc notgeld piece in 1917 as Germany's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage production entirely. The city — better known historically as the site of Thomas Müntzer's ill-fated theocratic commune during the 1525 Peasants' War — found itself, nearly four centuries later, printing and striking its own emergency currency like dozens of other Thuringian municipalities scrambling to maintain small-change liquidity. Funck 342.1 distinguishes this from later municipal issues in the series.