10 Heller Oftering

Oftering is a small parish municipality in Upper Austria, and this 10 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld emergency that swept through Austria between 1919 and 1921. With the postwar collapse of the Habsburg monetary system and a severe coin shortage, thousands of Austrian communities — including ones as minor as Oftering — were legally permitted to issue their own small-denomination paper scrip to keep local commerce functioning.

The municipality stamp served as the sole authentication, which tells you something about the informal, improvised nature of these issues. Jaksc 0706c indicates a third variant within the Oftering series, suggesting the municipality printed in multiple runs.