Neustettin's wartime notgeld issues emerged from the same acute metal shortage that stripped German municipal and commercial authorities of any reliable small-change supply by mid-1917. W. Angermann — almost certainly a local merchant or tradesman rather than a civic body — issued these tokens to keep transactions moving when Reichsbank-issued coinage had effectively vanished from daily commerce. Nickel-plated zinc was a common workaround: cheap, workable, and just credible enough to pass across a counter.
Neustettin's wartime notgeld issues emerged from the same acute metal shortage that stripped German municipal and commercial authorities of any reliable small-change supply by mid-1917. W. Angermann — almost certainly a local merchant or tradesman rather than a civic body — issued these tokens to keep transactions moving when Reichsbank-issued coinage had effectively vanished from daily commerce. Nickel-plated zinc was a common workaround: cheap, workable, and just credible enough to pass across a counter.