Nagold's 1918 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the enormous wave of emergency municipal coinage that flooded southern Germany as the Imperial war economy collapsed — metal shortages had stripped conventional coin production to near nothing, and local administrative bodies were legally authorized to fill the gap. Amtskörperschaft Nagold was a district-level administrative unit in Württemberg, and its issues are among the more obscure of the Baden-Württemberg notgeld series. Zinc was chosen not by preference but by elimination; copper and nickel had been requisitioned for armaments production years earlier.
Nagold's 1918 zinc notgeld issue belongs to the enormous wave of emergency municipal coinage that flooded southern Germany as the Imperial war economy collapsed — metal shortages had stripped conventional coin production to near nothing, and local administrative bodies were legally authorized to fill the gap. Amtskörperschaft Nagold was a district-level administrative unit in Württemberg, and its issues are among the more obscure of the Baden-Württemberg notgeld series. Zinc was chosen not by preference but by elimination; copper and nickel had been requisitioned for armaments production years earlier.