10 Heller Puchenau

Puchenau is a small village outside Linz, and this note is one of the Notgeld issues that flooded rural Austria after the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system left small municipalities scrambling for workable small change. What makes this particular piece worth attention is the printer: Klemens Brosch of Urfahr was not a commercial printing house but a locally celebrated graphic artist, trained in Vienna, who brought genuine artistic ambition to these tiny emergency pieces. Brosch died in 1926, still young, and his Notgeld designs are now collected as much for their authorship as their monetary history.

Three signatories authenticated each note — unusual thoroughness for a village issue of this denomination.