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10 Heller Freistadt
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Freistadt (City of Freistadt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Krone (1918-1921) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on uncoloured paper and is divided into three panels across the upper register, with the denomination numeral '10' in bold block type flanking a central vignette of a medieval tower and townscape of Freistadt amid stylised foliage and smoke, all within a decorative geometric border. The legend 'HELLER' appears beneath each numeral in bold letterpress. Two columns of German text below state the issuing authority and total emission volume of 100,000 Kronen, dated G.R.B. 3.III.1920, with a row of ornamental typographic devices along the lower edge. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark violet-black on light grey-green paper, with decorative floral and foliate side borders framing the central text field. The denomination 'Heller 10 Heller' is set in bold script and letterpress at the top, beneath which the title 'Gutschein der Stadt Freistadt O.-Ö.' appears in Gothic blackletter. A guarantee text in German is followed by the manuscript signatures of the Vizebürgermeister and the Bürgermeister above their respective titles, with the validity date 'Gültig nur bis 31. Oktober 1920.' and a counterfeiting warning at the foot. |
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| Comments |
Freistadt, a walled market town in Upper Austria, was among dozens of Austrian municipalities that issued small-denomination emergency notes — Notgeld — following the collapse of the Habsburg economy. The chronic coin shortage that persisted well into the early 1920s made even a 10 Heller note genuinely useful in daily transactions, and local issuers often treated the format as an opportunity for regional self-promotion.
The print date of 30 April 1945 in the catalog data is almost certainly a registration or cataloging artifact — Austria was in the final chaotic days of Nazi occupation on that date, and a 1920 Austrian Heller denomination would have had no monetary function whatsoever by then.