50 Pfennigs - Leipzig-Mölkau Hermann Frenkel

Hermann Frenkel's Leipzig-Mölkau notgeld emerged from the acute small-change shortage that gripped Germany during the First World War, when the public hoarded metal coinage and the Reichsbank could not keep pace with demand. Private businesses, municipalities, and local chambers of commerce were effectively forced to self-issue emergency money. Zinc was the material of necessity — copper and nickel had been requisitioned for the war effort years earlier.

Mölkau itself was a small industrial suburb east of Leipzig, not yet absorbed into the city proper at the time of issue.