1000 Gulden

The k.k. Staats-Central-Cassa — the Imperial-Royal State Central Treasury — issued paper money directly as a state obligation rather than through a commercial bank, a distinction that mattered enormously to the Austrian public. This 1849 issue came during a period of acute fiscal emergency: the revolutionary upheavals of 1848 had strained Habsburg finances to breaking point, forcing the state to float paper in denominations large enough that ordinary people would rarely handle them. A 1000 Gulden note in 1849 represented roughly two years' wages for a skilled craftsman.

High-denomination state paper from this period is rarely encountered in any condition — most saw heavy institutional use and were destroyed in redemption.