Catalog
10 Fillér
| Issuer | Metro Vizmérőgyár R.T., Budapest |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919-1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Black and yellow letterpress design on cream paper, enclosed within a double ruled rectangular border with a fine cross-hatched guilloche fill. A central oval cartouche carries the issuer name METRO in bold seriffed capitals at the top, VIZMÉRŐGYÁR R·T· in a smaller register below, and BUDAPEST in large expanded capitals beneath. The denomination 10 fillér appears below the cartouche in bold numerals and italic script. Flanking the oval are symmetrical acanthus-scroll vignettes in black and yellow. |
| Reverse lettering | "METRO" VIZMÉRŐGYÁR R·T· BUDAPEST 10 fillér |
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| Comments |
Metro Vizmérőgyár R.T. was a water meter manufacturing company, and this 10 Fillér note is exactly what it appears to be: emergency scrip issued by a private industrial firm to pay its own workers during the catastrophic currency shortage that gripped Hungary in 1919–1920. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian krone system, the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, and the subsequent Romanian occupation of Budapest created conditions in which the central banking apparatus essentially ceased functioning for ordinary transactions. Factories printed their own.
These pieces of local industrial scrip — szükségpénz in Hungarian — were redeemable only within the issuing firm's own payroll and commissary network, and had no legal standing beyond that.