50 Pfennig - Niederramstadt Wacker and Doerr

Wacker & Doerr was a chemical factory operating in Niederramstadt, a village in Hesse, and this zinc token was issued as private emergency currency — Notgeld — almost certainly during the acute coin shortages of World War I or its immediate aftermath. Thousands of German firms, municipalities, and institutions produced their own small-denomination scrip during this period, as the imperial and later republican mints could not keep pace with demand. Zinc was the material of last resort, chosen because copper, nickel, and brass had been requisitioned for the war effort.