50 Pfennig - München Oskar Kiesel and Cº

Issued in 1918 by a Munich private firm during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany in the final year of the First World War, this is Notgeld — emergency currency produced by businesses, municipalities, and institutions when the Reichsbank could no longer supply sufficient coinage. Brass-plated zinc was a common stopgap material; base metal supplies were themselves constrained by wartime requisitioning, which is why the plating quality on surviving examples varies so dramatically.

Oskar Kiesel & Co. appears in the Menzel notgeld catalogues under two separate reference numbers, suggesting at least one variant exists within this type.