50 Pfennig - München Karl Dürrwanger

Dürrwanger was a Munich merchant who issued this zinc notgeld in 1918 as small-denomination coinage effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply not replaced by a government consumed by war. Private merchant tokens of this type filled a genuine transactional void in Bavarian commerce during the final months of the war, and zinc was the only base metal readily available after copper, nickel, and brass had been commandeered for military production.