5 Pfennig - Wangen im Allgäu

Wangen im Allgäu issued this zinc notgeld piece in 1918 as the German imperial supply chain collapsed under the combined pressure of the Allied blockade and four years of war. Copper and nickel had been requisitioned for munitions long before; zinc itself was a compromise material, prone to corrosion and difficult to strike cleanly. Municipalities across Baden-Württemberg improvised independently, with no standardized issuing authority, which is why catalog references for these pieces fragment across multiple numbering systems.