Max Kray & Co. was a Berlin-based metal goods manufacturer that issued notgeld coinage during the acute small-change shortages of the early 1920s, when municipal and commercial token issuers filled the vacuum left by the near-total disappearance of official low-denomination coinage from circulation. Zinc was the practical choice — copper and nickel were strategically restricted, and aluminum was already overextended by state mints.
The Hasselmann reference places this firmly within the documented commercial notgeld corpus, distinguishing it from the more speculative collector-targeted issues of the same period.
Max Kray & Co. was a Berlin-based metal goods manufacturer that issued notgeld coinage during the acute small-change shortages of the early 1920s, when municipal and commercial token issuers filled the vacuum left by the near-total disappearance of official low-denomination coinage from circulation. Zinc was the practical choice — copper and nickel were strategically restricted, and aluminum was already overextended by state mints.
The Hasselmann reference places this firmly within the documented commercial notgeld corpus, distinguishing it from the more speculative collector-targeted issues of the same period.