Catalog
2 Gulden
| Issuer | Wiener Stadt Banco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1800 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Gulden (1754-1857) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Zwey Guld + 2 Das iſt Zweÿ Gulden Wiener - Stadt Banco ~ Zettel Welcher in allen Kontributions – Kameral – und Banco – Kaſſen der hungariſch – böhmiſch – und öeſterreichiſchen Erb- landen in allen Abgaben für Baares Geld, das iſt für Zwey Gulden angenohmen wird. Wien den 1. Januar 1800. v. Gr. St. Wien Banco Zettels Haupt Kaſse 2 F ~ ZWEY ~ GULD ~ G. S. Wien Banko Zettel f. Zwey Gul. G. S. Wien Banko Zettel p. Zwey Gul. II. F1. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Protection description | Two oval official dry-stamp seals embossed into the paper on the reverse, bearing armorial vignettes with circular legends, serving as authentication marks for the Wiener Stadt Banco. |
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| Comments |
The Wiener Stadt Banco was one of the oldest public credit institutions in Europe, founded in 1706 to consolidate Vienna's municipal debt. By 1800, it was already under severe strain — the Habsburgs had been financing near-continuous warfare, and the bank's note circulation had grown far beyond its metallic reserves. This particular emission preceded the catastrophic 1811 state bankruptcy by just over a decade, during which the Austrian currency was devalued to one-fifth of its face value through the Finanzpatent of 20 February 1811.
The embossed seal served as the primary anti-counterfeiting measure at a time when intaglio security printing was not yet standard practice for smaller denominations in the Habsburg lands.