20 Heller Laakirchen

Laakirchen's 20 Heller notgeld belongs to the second wave of Austrian municipal emergency money — the prolonged postwar issues printed well after the armistice, when coin shortages persisted and the new Austrian state had not yet stabilized small-denomination supply. By 1920 this was an administrative nuisance more than a crisis measure, with hundreds of Upper Austrian communes producing their own fractional paper at minimal print runs.

Laakirchen, a paper-mill town on the Traun, was modest enough that its notgeld issues circulated almost entirely within the local economy. The series was redeemable by the issuing municipality, though enforcement of that obligation varied considerably across the region.