20 Heller Mauthausen; PoW Camp

Mauthausen operated as an Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war camp during the First World War — entirely distinct from, and predating, the notorious SS concentration camp established at the same Upper Austrian site in 1938. The K.u.k. Kriegsgefangenenlager system issued its own internal camp currency to prevent prisoners from accumulating standard coinage, which could finance escape attempts or be smuggled out. These Heller denominations functioned only within the wire.

Printing quality and paper stock vary considerably across the camp scrip series, as production was handled administratively rather than by any established note printer. Mauthausen camp notes surface rarely in trade — most were voided and destroyed at war's end or simply discarded by repatriated prisoners who had no further use for them.