Catalog
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| Issuer | Baumwollspinnerei Germania (Epe) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.6 g |
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| Obverse description | Octagonal iron notgeld token with a plain field at center bearing the large numeral '50' in bold relief, enclosed within a dotted inner border. The circular legend reads 'BAUMWOLLSPINNEREI GERMANIA' along the upper arc and 'EPE. WESTF.' along the lower arc, separated by five-pointed star stops. The overall design is utilitarian, consistent with German wartime and postwar emergency small-change issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | BAUMWOLLSPINNEREI GERMANIA 50 ★ EPE. WESTF. ★ |
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| Additional information |
Issued by a private cotton spinning mill in Epe, Westphalia, this is a piece of German Notgeld — emergency currency produced by local businesses and municipalities during the acute coin shortages of World War I. As the imperial government diverted metals to the war effort, small-denomination coins vanished from circulation almost entirely, forcing employers like the Baumwollspinnerei Germania to mint their own iron tokens simply to make change for workers' wages. Iron was the fallback material precisely because the more useful metals were elsewhere.