The Allied Military Authority schilling notes were printed in London by Bradbury Wilkinson ahead of the 1945 liberation of Austria, intended as an occupation currency to displace Reichsmarks without creating a monetary vacuum. The high denomination is notable: a 1,000 Schilling ceiling implies the issuing authority anticipated significant commercial transactions needing coverage, not just small-change troop payments.
Soviet forces, arriving in Vienna before the Western Allies, accepted these notes under the quadripartite agreement — one of the rare cases where a single printed series circulated simultaneously under four separate occupying powers with genuinely divergent economic agendas.
The Allied Military Authority schilling notes were printed in London by Bradbury Wilkinson ahead of the 1945 liberation of Austria, intended as an occupation currency to displace Reichsmarks without creating a monetary vacuum. The high denomination is notable: a 1,000 Schilling ceiling implies the issuing authority anticipated significant commercial transactions needing coverage, not just small-change troop payments.
Soviet forces, arriving in Vienna before the Western Allies, accepted these notes under the quadripartite agreement — one of the rare cases where a single printed series circulated simultaneously under four separate occupying powers with genuinely divergent economic agendas.