50 Pfennig - Ruppersdorf Chamottefabrik

Ruppersdorf's Chamottefabrik issued zinc notgeld tokens during the acute small-change shortages that plagued German industry in the early 1920s, when hyperinflation made official coinage disappear from circulation almost overnight. Factory-issued tokens of this type functioned as internal scrip — redeemable at company canteens or stores, rarely escaping the plant grounds. Zinc was the material of necessity, not preference; brass and nickel had long since been commandeered for the war effort and never fully returned to the small-denomination supply chain.