Rapp Motorenwerke was a small Munich aero-engine manufacturer that reorganized in 1917 and re-emerged as Bayerische Motoren Werke — BMW. This notgeld piece dates to the acute small-change shortage of WWI Germany, when private firms, municipalities, and even shops issued their own emergency tokens to keep payroll and canteen transactions moving. Factory-issued notgeld of this kind was typically redeemable only at company facilities, making survival outside the original workforce a matter of chance rather than design.
Rapp Motorenwerke was a small Munich aero-engine manufacturer that reorganized in 1917 and re-emerged as Bayerische Motoren Werke — BMW. This notgeld piece dates to the acute small-change shortage of WWI Germany, when private firms, municipalities, and even shops issued their own emergency tokens to keep payroll and canteen transactions moving. Factory-issued notgeld of this kind was typically redeemable only at company facilities, making survival outside the original workforce a matter of chance rather than design.