Catalog
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| Issuer | City of Adelsheim |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 1.3 mm |
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| Obverse description | Central field depicts the civic arms of Adelsheim, a quartered heraldic shield held by a robed figure whose outstretched arms grasp either side of the escutcheon; the central hole pierces the lower half of the shield. The field is bordered by a beaded inner rim, and the outer legend STADT ADELSHEIM arcs along the upper periphery in raised Latin capitals. The overall composition is rendered in a flat, low-relief style characteristic of World War I-era German Notgeld coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Adelsheim's 1918 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of German municipal emergency coinage, produced as the imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from local circulation almost entirely. Small towns like Adelsheim — fewer than 2,000 inhabitants at the time — were left to manage their own small-change crises independently, with no standardized authorization process and minimal oversight from state authorities.
Zinc was the default fallback material: plentiful, cheap, and deeply unpopular with the public, who found it prone to oxidation and difficult to distinguish by feel.