50 Pfennig - Frankenthal

Frankenthal issued this zinc notgeld piece in 1917 as the Imperial German war economy stripped copper and nickel from civilian coinage entirely. Zinc was the fallback — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular with the public, who correctly noted it corroded quickly in pocket wear. Hundreds of German municipalities issued their own emergency coinage that year under similar pressures, but Frankenthal's pieces are catalogued across multiple reference systems precisely because collectors began systematically documenting the type variations almost immediately after the war ended.