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20 Heller Gurten
| Issuer | Gemeinde Gurten (Municipality of Gurten) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Gutschein der Gemeinde Gurten |
| Reverse description | Printed in grey-brown with blue numerals and text, the reverse is laid out with a geometric guilloche border incorporating spiral rosette ornaments at the corners and wave-pattern bands along the edges. A central rectangular text panel bears the authorising resolution inscription, beneath which appear two manuscript facsimile signatures under the titles 'Der Bürgermeister' and 'Der Stellvertreter'. The denomination 'Zwanzig Heller' is printed in blue letterpress both above and below the text panel, with the numeral '20' in blue at the lateral margins. The redemption deadline is inscribed along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Gurten is a small agricultural commune in the Bernese Oberaargau, and like hundreds of Swiss municipalities it resorted to locally printed Notgeld during the acute small-change shortage that followed the First World War. The Swiss federal government was slow to address the fractional coin gap, leaving communes, cooperatives, and even individual merchants to fill the void between 1918 and 1921 with their own emergency paper.
The Jaksch/Pick JPR series catalogues over three hundred distinct Swiss municipal issues from this period — Gurten's 20 Heller being among the more obscure, from a village that never had reason to issue paper money before or since.