50 Pfennig - Burghausen an der Salzach Acetonfabrik

Burghausen's acetone factory — operated by what became Wacker-Chemie — issued this zinc notgeld during the acute small-change shortages that gripped Germany in 1917–1918, when the Imperial government had already stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage. Factory-issued pieces like this one circulated as internal scrip among workers, redeemable at the company store or canteen, and rarely traveled far beyond the issuing plant's gates. The zinc composition was no accident: it was essentially the only non-strategic metal left available to civilian issuers by mid-war.