10 Heller Niederösterreich

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the new Austrian state inherited a currency vacuum that the central government in Vienna could not fill quickly enough. Provincial and municipal authorities across what remained of German-Austria began issuing their own small-denomination emergency paper — Notgeld — to address a crippling shortage of coin. Lower Austria was among the most prolific issuers, and this 10 Heller note was printed by the provincial railway print shop, an in-house facility repurposed for the task.

The engraver R. Kienner is otherwise obscure; no significant independent body of work has been attributed to him outside these provincial issues.