5 Pfennigs - Bamberg Spinnerei

Bamberg Spinnerei was one of dozens of German industrial firms that issued zinc notgeld tokens during the material shortages of World War I, when the imperial government requisitioned copper and nickel for war production. Factory-issued scrip of this kind circulated exclusively among a company's own workforce, redeemable at company-operated shops or canteens — a system that kept production lines running when official small change effectively vanished from everyday commerce.

Zinc was itself a compromise material, prone to corrosion and difficult to strike cleanly, which explains the typically poor surface preservation seen on surviving examples.