50 Pfennig - Nürnberg Wilhelm Gevekoht

Issued by Wilhelm Gevekoht, a Nürnberg-based merchant or tradesman, this is a piece of First World War German Notgeld — emergency municipal and private coinage produced when the imperial government's wartime metal requisitions stripped zinc, nickel, and copper from everyday circulation. By 1917, the shortage was acute enough that individual businesses were legally permitted to issue their own fractional currency, redeemable at the issuer's premises. Thousands of such pieces flooded Bavaria alone.

Gevekoht's issue in zinc reflects the material hierarchy of the period — even that base metal was increasingly directed toward shell casings and military hardware by 1918.