Grafing's 1917 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first major wave of German municipal emergency coinage, driven by the wartime requisitioning of copper and nickel for munitions production. The Reich's Auxiliary Service Law of 1916 had already mobilized the civilian economy; by the following year, even small Bavarian market towns were being forced to source their own small change. Zinc was the compromise material — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular in circulation due to its tendency to corrode and seize in vending mechanisms.
Grafing's 1917 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the first major wave of German municipal emergency coinage, driven by the wartime requisitioning of copper and nickel for munitions production. The Reich's Auxiliary Service Law of 1916 had already mobilized the civilian economy; by the following year, even small Bavarian market towns were being forced to source their own small change. Zinc was the compromise material — cheap, available, and deeply unpopular in circulation due to its tendency to corrode and seize in vending mechanisms.