10 Heller

Schwallenbach an der Donau is a tiny riverside settlement in the Wachau, and in 1920 it was among hundreds of Austrian municipalities forced to print their own emergency fractional currency — Notgeld — because small coins had effectively vanished from circulation. The postwar Austrian state could not produce enough coinage to meet everyday commercial needs, so the burden fell to local authorities, down to the village level.

A. Grundmann of Vienna handled a significant volume of these municipal commissions. The sheer number of Wachau-area issues from this period means Schwallenbach's note is collectible primarily as a regional type rather than a rarity by scarcity.