50 Pfennig - Germersheim

Germersheim's 1917 zinc Notgeld issue belongs to the first wave of municipally authorized emergency coinage that flooded Germany after the Imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped copper and nickel from circulation. Zinc was a compromise — cheaper to source than iron, easier to strike than aluminum, and sufficiently durable for short-term local use. Germersheim, a fortified Rhine town with a Bavarian garrison history, was among hundreds of smaller municipalities that took matters into their own hands rather than wait for centralized relief that was slow to arrive.

Funck 157.3 distinguishes this among known die variants of the issue.