Catalog
20 Coroane Bukovina
| Issuer | Romania (Bukovina overprint on Austro-Hungarian Bank note) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Currency | Austro-Hungarian Krone (1919) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is a Romanian overprint ('TIMBRU SPECIAL' / 'ROMANIA') applied to the original Austro-Hungarian Bank 20 Kronen note dated 2 January 1913. The left half bears a vignette of a young woman in three-quarter profile set within an ornate guilloche frame, with large numeral '20' on either side. The right half carries the main German-language text block with the Austro-Hungarian double-headed eagle and facsimile signatures of the Gouverneur and Generalsekretär. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 20 20 ROMANIA TIMBRU SPECIAL DIE OESTERREICHISCH-UNGARISCHE BANK ZAHLT GEGEN DIESE BANKNOTE BEI IHREN HAUPTANSTALTEN IN WIEN UND BUDAPEST SOFORT AUF VERLANGEN ZWANZIG KRONEN IN GESETZLICHEM METALLGELDE WIEN 2 JANNER 1913 OESTERREICHISCH-UNGARISCHE BANK GENERALRAT GOUVERNEUR GENERALSEKRETÄR DVACET KORUN DWADZIESCIA KORUN ДВАДЦЯТЬ КОРОН VENTI CORONE DVAJSET KRON DVADESET KRUNA ДВАДЕСЕТ КРУНА DOUĂZECI COROANE DIE NACHMACHUNG DER BANKNOTEN WIRD GESETZLICH BESTRAFT II AUFLAGE |
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| Comments |
When Romanian forces occupied Bukovina following the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the administration needed a rapid currency solution before proper Romanian notes could be distributed. The answer was crude but practical: existing Austro-Hungarian 20 Kronen notes were overstamped with a bilingual "ROMANIA / BUCOVINA" overprint to differentiate them from notes still circulating on the other side of the new frontier. The overprint carried legal authority; the underlying note was essentially enemy paper.
The Pick reference P#R5 places this firmly in the Romanian regional emergency issues. The 1919 date on the overprint contrasts with the underlying Austro-Hungarian note's original printing date — the two layers of authority visible on a single piece of paper are the whole story here.