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20 Heller
| Issuer | Gemeinde Sankt Agatha bei Wels (Municipality of Sankt Agatha) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Brown letterpress Notgeld note divided into two vertical panels by a ruled border. The left panel carries a patriotic German-language poem in Gothic blackletter script set vertically within an ornamental frame with scroll motifs at top and bottom. The right panel bears the issuing authority title in bold Gothic script at the top, with the denomination '20 Heller' centered in large type flanked by circular numeral cartouches at left and right; below, a guarantee text, redemption date of 30 September 1920, the facsimile signature of Bürgermeister Altenhofer, and a decorative border of small circles complete the design. A counterfeiting warning in Gothic script runs along the bottom edge. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in brown on plain paper and divided into two vertical sections by a ruled frame. The narrow left panel carries the denomination '20 Heller' in bold Gothic blackletter set vertically, flanked by concentric square corner ornaments. The main right panel presents a finely executed line-art vignette of the Fadinger-Hütte mit Linden (1623), a historic rustic structure set among trees and a tall rocky outcrop beneath an open sky; the vignette is enclosed within a double-ruled rectangular border with a hatched inner frame. The caption identifying the scene is inscribed in sans-serif capitals along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Sankt Agatha bei Wels is a small rural parish in Upper Austria, and this 20 Heller note belongs to the enormous wave of Notgeld issued by Austrian municipalities between 1919 and 1921. The postwar collapse of the Habsburg monetary system left small communities without adequate coin for everyday transactions — the Vienna-struck copper and nickel had largely vanished into hoarding — so thousands of towns and villages printed their own emergency fractional notes to keep local commerce moving.
The single signature, Altenhofer, almost certainly represents the Bürgermeister or an authorized municipal official rather than a banking officer. No bank was involved.