50 Pfennig - Aumund-Vegesack Fr. Lürssen

Fr. Lürssen was one of Germany's most prominent shipbuilders, based on the Weser at Aumund-Vegesack near Bremen — a firm that would later produce E-boats for the Kriegsmarine. This token belongs to the notgeld issues produced during the acute small-change shortages of World War I, when private firms, municipalities, and even shops issued their own emergency currency to keep wages and transactions moving. Zinc was the material of necessity: copper and nickel had been requisitioned for the war effort, leaving manufacturers to work with whatever the blockade hadn't yet claimed.