5 Pfennigs - Leipzig Meier & Weichelt

Meier & Weichelt was a Leipzig-based metalworking firm that, like hundreds of German industrial companies, began issuing private emergency coinage — Kriegsgeld — when the Reich's copper and nickel supplies were commandeered for the war effort after 1916. Municipal and corporate notgeld filled the vacuum left by official small change, which had largely vanished into hoarding and metal recycling. The nickel-plated zinc construction is itself a record of material desperation.