50 Pfennig - Krotoschin

Krotoschin — known today as Krotoszyn, in west-central Poland — was part of the Prussian Province of Posen when this piece was issued in 1917. German municipal authorities across occupied and domestic territories resorted to locally issued Notgeld that year as the Imperial war economy drained silver and copper from circulation entirely. Zinc was the fallback: cheap, abundant from domestic mining, and deeply unpopular with the public, who found it prone to corrosion and difficult to distinguish by feel.

The Funck 261.4 cataloguing places this among several known Krotoschin zinc issues, suggesting the city struck more than one denomination or variety in this metal during the same period.