10 Heller Durnstein an der Donau

Dürrnstein, the small Wachau river-town on these notes' face value, is best known as the castle ruin where Richard I of England was held captive in 1192–93 — a fact the local Marktgemeinde was clearly not above trading on. The 10 Heller was part of a broader Austrian Notgeld wave that flooded the country after the collapse of the Habsburg currency system left provincial municipalities scrambling for small change; the central government simply could not supply adequate coin in the immediate postwar years.

Eduard Sieger of Vienna was a prolific printer of Austrian emergency currency during this period, and the involvement of a named designer — Prof. Kampas of Mödling — suggests these were produced with more deliberate artistic intent than the crudest municipal issues.