Rare coins give a glimpse into chemical industry history

The history of the chemical and petroleum industries, which created the modern plastics industry, is widely available from books, published articles and the internet. But very few people know that it's also available through numismatics: the study of coins.

Cities, provinces and companies issued coins, currency, medals and related numismatic items for a variety of reasons — such as economic crises, military conflict, wages and employee benefits — to commemorate events and for customer promotions. Most of the coins and currency issued by these companies could only be used within the company in cafeterias, canteens, company stores and production facilities.

Through numismatics, company histories can be seen and we can see that strategies that we take for granted today were practiced for more than 100 years. These strategies include back and forward integration, feedstock-driven foreign investments, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, research and development, and globalization.

Western Europe gave birth to the chemical industry. The explosives, glass, soap and textiles industries provided the demand with coal, salt (sodium chloride) and pyrites (a waste byproduct of coal mining) providing the raw material base for its development. Germany had the largest deposits of coal in Europe and one of the best university systems focusing on chemistry, so it became the center of the European chemical industry.

Many of the coins and banknotes were issued by companies that no longer exist. They either closed or, most often, were acquired by companies currently operating. Let's take a look at issues that led to the release of these historical objects.

During a war, the metal value of copper, silver and nickel coins exceeded their spending value, so people kept them. To facilitate commerce, paper money and lesser-value metal coins (iron and zinc) were issued.

The first known wartime issue by a chemical company was during the Franco-Prussian War, which only lasted 11 months in 1870-71. During that conflict, notes were issued by St. Gobain, Chauny & Cirey (des glaces et produits chimiques). The firm had been founded in 1665 and entered the chemical business in 1819, producing soda ash for its glass business.

Since the war was so short (with France losing), not many notes were issued and most were redeemed for French francs after the war. The front of these notes had the company name, the denomination and a floral design. The back stated that these notes must be exchanged for French francs by Dec. 31, 1871, or they would become worthless.

World War I created similar coin shortages, resulting in many companies issuing low denomination coins and banknotes. Merck is the oldest continuously operating chemical company in the world, founded in 1668. During WWI, the company issued both coins and paper money called notgeld — not=emergency, geld=money. Pictured on front of the 5-pfennig note was its plant in Darmstadt. The back had a glass laboratory distillation beaker.

Wacker Chemie was established in 1914 in Bürghausen, Germany, by Alexander Wacker, who did extensive work in carbide (coal) chemistry. The Bürghausen factory, which began operations in 1916-17, was the first world-scale plant to commercially produce acetone, acetic acid and acetaldehyde. Its 10-pfennig coin is called "kleingeldersatzmarke" (small substitute money marks).

Germany was in economic chaos following its loss in WWI. The Treaty of Versailles mandated that Germany pay reparations for the entire cost of the destruction caused by the war. Over time, Germany could no longer pay this debt. It reached its zenith in 1923, resulting in hyperinflation as the government continued to print currency with no backing.

Prices rose daily at geometric rates. For example, on Jan. 2, 1922, a loaf of bread cost 175 marks. On Jan. 2, 1923, the cost was 160,000 marks. In December, the cost was 4.2 trillion marks. Inflation was so rapid that new banknotes couldn't be designed and printed quickly, so older banknotes that were basically worthless were overprinted with new values.

In 1861, Friedrich Engelhorn began producing fuchsin (magenta), a red dye, and aniline, the raw material obtained from coal tar. As his business progressed, he realized that best way to be an economical producer of dyes was to participate in the whole production chain from raw materials and auxiliaries through precursors and intermediates to the various dyes.

In April 1865, Engelhorn founded Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (BASF), which became the first fully integrated chemical company in the world. In October 1923, BASF issued a 1 billion (thousand million) mark note that was overprinted on a now-worthless 1,000 mark note originally issued one year earlier.

At the same time, German chemicals firm Bayer issued a 1 billion (Milliarde) note overprinted on a now-worthless 500,000 mark note originally issued Aug. 1, 1922. The note features the Bayer logo at the time: a winged lion (griffin) holding a globe.

Bayer was founded in 1863 by dye salesman Friedrich Bayer and master dyer Johann Friedrich Weskott for the manufacturing and selling of synthetic dyes. From 1881 to 1913, Bayer developed into a major chemical company with international operations with a strong focus on R&D. Some of the products that were developed included aspirin, polycarbonate and polyurethanes.

The Great Depression (1929-33) created worldwide economic collapse. Throughout the U.S., cities and companies issued coins and banknotes. One of the most interesting and unusual issues came from Dow Chemical Co. The coin is made of magnesium.

At the time, Dowmetal accounted for more than 90 percent of world magnesium production. The front of the coin has the Dowmetal logo and the text that requires the coin to be used before March 1, 1933.

The back of the coin has a pine tree, cornucopia and a brine well from which magnesium was obtained. Pine trees were used to produce chemicals for ink, paints and coatings, adhesives, soaps and detergents, fragrances, chewing gum and pine oil disinfectants. The cornucopia was reminder that the U.S. had an abundant supply of produce — and that good times were ahead.

Robert Bauman began his 58th year in the petrochemical industry in 2023. After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now part of New York University) in 1966, he moved to Houston for his first job at the La Porte, Texas, plant of U.S. Industrial Chemicals (now part of LyondellBasell), which made polyethylene resins and vinyl acetate.

In 1972, Bauman transferred to USI's strategic planning group in New York. In 1980, he joined consulting firm Chem Systems (Nexant), where he was vice president of the polymers business, responsible for the Americas and Asia. Bauman retired from Nexant in 2008 to start Polymer Consulting International, his own consulting firm, which is still operating.

In June, Bauman celebrated his 80th birthday, and in August he marked the 15th anniversary of PCI. With Chem Systems, he frequently traveled internationally and began collecting paper money. When he retired in 2008, Bauman owned more than 13,000 different world and U.S. banknotes.

The collection, consisting of more than 550 items, has been donated to the Science History Institute museum in Philadelphia. It can be accessed at www.sciencehistory.org under Midon Othmer Library with the search term Bauman.