10 Heller Langenstein

Langenstein is a small village in Upper Austria, and this 10 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld wave that swept Austrian municipalities between 1919 and 1921. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian crown's purchasing power after the First World War left the central government unable to supply sufficient small-denomination coinage, forcing thousands of communes — many of them tiny — to print their own emergency fractional currency. Langenstein was one of hundreds that complied, issuing locally authorized scrip that was technically redeemable but rarely formally retired.

Heller-denomination Notgeld from villages this small tends to survive in higher condition than urban issues, simply because rural circulation was lighter.