50 Pfennig - Augsburg Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg

Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg — better known as MAN — issued this notgeld token in 1918 as Germany's wartime metal shortages made official coinage increasingly scarce. By that stage of the war, copper, nickel, and even iron had been requisitioned for munitions, pushing municipal authorities and large industrial employers alike to produce their own substitute currency in zinc and pressed cardboard. MAN was one of the Reich's most critical war industries, manufacturing submarine diesel engines and military vehicles, which made keeping its workforce paid and functional a logistical priority the company solved partly through internal scrip.