50 Halierov Trial Strike

Slovakia's wartime puppet government under Jozef Tiso was perpetually short of metal by 1944, with nickel and aluminum increasingly diverted to German war production. This trial strike in brass — an alloy not adopted for the circulating issue — represents one of several composition tests conducted as the Bratislava mint searched for a workable substitute. The 90/10 copper-zinc formula was ultimately rejected, likely on cost or supply grounds, before Soviet forces crossed into Slovak territory that autumn and rendered the question moot.