10 Heller Marchegg

Marchegg is a small border town in Lower Austria, sitting directly on the March river opposite Slovakia — a position that gave it strategic importance during the turbulent years following the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. This Heller notgeld was issued in 1920, when chronic coin shortages across rump Austria forced hundreds of municipalities to print their own emergency small change. The town had neither the resources nor the need for elaborate collector-grade artwork; this is purely functional notgeld.

Franz Schweng in Gänserndorf — the nearest district capital, roughly 10 kilometers west — was the obvious choice for a job this modest.