20 Heller - Wilhelm II Tabora Emergency Coinage

Different variants exist :
Obverse A : big crown
Obverse B : small crown
Reverse A : Curled tip on second L
Reverse B : Pointed tips on L's
Reverse C : Curled tips on L's

Historical context
At the First World War outbreak, in August 1914, Dar-es-Salam, the capital of German East Africa, was bombed by the British HMS Astraea and Pegasus cruisers. Consequently, the capital was moved inland, to Tabora. The German Empire attempted to bypass the maritime blockade by using Zeppelins to deliver supplies to Tabora, but this plan failed.

Due to the lack of a connection to the empire, East Africa was cut off from the imperial gold and silver coinage, which made it difficult for the German East African Company to conduct domestic and international transactions. Therefore, the colonial government had to print banknotes and mint coins locally to continue paying the Askari mercenaries. This resulted in the only German imperial coinage with the mint mark "T" for Tabora.

The Mint
The emergency mint was established in a postal railway workshop owned by the German East Africa Bank in Tabora, where for security reasons, a corrugated iron shelter was put together inside the building for the production of the coins. The workforce consisted of two Indians, six Africans and seven Sinhalese goldsmiths recruited in Dar es Salaam.

The minting equipment was salvaged from the SMS Königsberg light cruiser, scuttled on 11 July 1915 by two British monitors. The basic information about how to mint such coins was found in a Meyers' Encyclopaedia in the governor's office.