5 Pfennigs - Ansbach K.B. Hoflieferant Friedrich Graf

Friedrich Graf held the title K.B. Hoflieferant — königlich-bayerischer Hoflieferant, a royal Bavarian court supplier designation — indicating he operated under official patronage from the Bavarian crown. Merchants and tradespeople issued zinc notgeld tokens like this one during the acute small-change shortages that plagued Germany in the First World War and its immediate aftermath, when metal coinage disappeared from circulation as hoarding and wartime requisitioning stripped the economy of low-denomination coins. Zinc was the material of necessity, not preference.