10 Heller Krems

Krems an der Donau issued these small-denomination Heller notes as part of the broader Austrian Notgeld wave that followed the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system. The municipal issues of 1920 were a direct response to chronic coin shortages — ordinary metal had been systematically consumed by wartime industrial demand, and by 1920 even the smallest transactions were grinding to a halt without fractional currency. Towns issued their own paper simply because no one else would.

The Jaksch/Pick reference JPR0472I places this firmly within the documented Lower Austrian series, though survival rates for 10 Heller denominations are generally lower than the larger values — they circulated hardest and were discarded fastest.