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| Issuer | Gemeinde Ernsthofen (Municipality of Ernsthofen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Jaksc/Pick#JPR0184a-20 |
| Obverse description | Brown notgeld voucher on a fine diamond-pattern guilloche underprint, with the denomination numeral '20' in ornate script at each corner. The central text panel, framed by an elaborate lozenge-shaped cartouche with foliate ornament, carries the voucher legend and denomination in Gothic blackletter script. Two facsimile signatures of municipal officials appear at the lower centre, with their titles printed above in Roman type, and the printer's imprint runs along the lower left margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Brown reverse on a continuous diamond-pattern guilloche ground, with the numeral '20' in cursive script at each corner. The centre is occupied by a large oval cartouche with shaped shoulders enclosing a typographic vignette of the local parish church with its square tower, surrounded by trees and a low fence, rendered in a photomechanical print style. No inscriptions appear on the reverse. |
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| Comments |
Ernsthofen is a small Lower Austrian municipality that, like hundreds of others, issued its own emergency scrip during the Notgeld period following the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system. The Gemeinde turned to Paul Gerin in Vienna — a printer responsible for a substantial share of Austrian municipal Notgeld — with artwork credited to A. Peschke, an arrangement typical of Gerin's operation, where in-house or contracted designers supplied localized motifs to differentiate otherwise standardized small-denomination issues.
Two signatories authenticated this note: the Bürgermeister and his deputy, the Vizebürgermeister Stefan Gerstmayr. That dual-signature requirement on a 20 Heller note says something about how seriously even tiny municipalities treated the legal formality of issuing what was, in practice, hyperlocal currency.