20 Heller Martinsberg

Martinsberg is a small parish in Lower Austria's Waldviertel, and this 20 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld wave that swept Austrian municipalities after the First World War, when coin shortages made small-denomination change effectively impossible to obtain. The printer, Steuler of Pöggstall, was a local operation serving the immediate region — not one of the Vienna houses responsible for the more elaborate Notgeld issues that became collector pieces almost immediately upon release.

Designer Em. Nowotny is otherwise unattested in the major references. The two signatories — Deputy Mayor Ludwig Nrhenegger and Mayor G. Nungele — authenticated each note by hand, a requirement that added legal standing under the informal emergency currency framework Austria tolerated through the early 1920s.