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20 Heller Aigen
| Issuer | Marktgemeinde Aigen (Market Town of Aigen, Upper Austria) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Value | 20 Hellers (0.20) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in brown on a grey-blue underprint, the obverse centres on the circular municipal seal of Markt Aigen dated 1708, bearing three pine trees above and two crossed hammers below within an ornamental scroll ribbon inscribed 'SIGIL. DES. MARKTH. AIGEN'. The denomination '20' in large Gothic numerals appears at upper left and right, each accompanied by 'Heller' in decorative script, while flanking text panels carry the legal tender and redemption guarantee clauses. A ruled panel across the upper register bears the validity notice 'Gültig bis einschließlich 31. Dezember 1920'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in dark blue-grey on a warm buff ground, the reverse presents a panoramic townscape vignette of the Aigen market square, framed at left and right by stone gate pillars; a figurative fountain occupies the foreground centre, flanked by trees and figures, with a row of civic buildings and a wooded hillside receding into the background. The heading 'Aigener Notgeld' in bold Gothic lettering spans the upper register, with the denomination '20 Heller' repeated in boxed panels at upper left and right. |
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| Comments |
Aigen — more precisely Aigen im Mühlkreis, in the Böhmerwald borderland of Upper Austria — issued this note during the Kleingeldersatz crisis that plagued Austria in the immediate postwar years. The collapse of the Habsburg monetary system and chronic coin shortages forced hundreds of municipalities to print their own fractional emergency currency, a phenomenon known as Notgeld. These market-town issues were strictly local in validity and typically redeemable only within the issuing community.
The Jaksc reference system is the primary catalog for Austrian municipal Notgeld, covering issues that Pick's World Paper Money series handles only selectively at this level of granularity. The 20 Heller denomination sits at the lower end of practical utility — enough for a bread roll or a tram fare, which was precisely the gap these notes were meant to fill.