50 Pfennig - Lennep

Lennep, a small industrial town in the Bergisches Land east of Düsseldorf, issued this piece under the emergency currency (Notgeld) system that proliferated across Germany after the Reich's metal reserves were consumed by the war effort. By 1917, copper and nickel had been requisitioned so thoroughly that local authorities were authorized — and essentially compelled — to mint their own substitute coinage in zinc, iron, and even compressed coal dust.

The Funck reference places this among the documented municipal issues, with die variety .3 distinguishing it within the Lennep series.