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20 Heller Melk
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Melk an der Donau |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Currency | Krone (1918-1921) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dark brown-violet on buff paper, the note is divided into two panels by a vertical rule within a decorative dot-and-rosette border. The left panel carries the denomination numeral '20' in the upper-left corner alongside the Gothic-script title 'Zwanzig Heller', followed by the issuer legend and a three-line guarantee text with two manuscript signatures below, one identified as 'Der Bürgermeister'; a large underprint numeral '20' appears in the background. The right panel contains a detailed letterpress vignette of Melk Abbey perched above the Danube, with a heraldic lion cartouche at its foot; at the lower margin a red overprint reads 'Zweite Auflage' (Second Issue). |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 20 Zwanzig Heller Gutschein der Stadtgemeinde Melk a. d. Donau Die Stadtgemeinde Melk haftet für die Verbindlichkeit, diesen Schein in gesetzlichem Bargeld einzulösen und hat hiefür eine eigene Deckungsrücklage bestellt. Der Bürgermeister: Gültig nur bis einschließlich 30. Juni 1920 Die Nachahmung dieses Scheines wird gesetzlich bestraft! Zweite Auflage |
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| Comments |
Melk's 20 Heller Notgeld was issued under Austria's postwar emergency currency system, which allowed municipalities to produce their own small-denomination paper when federal coinage had effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply never minted in sufficient quantity after the collapse of the Habsburg monetary apparatus. Hundreds of Austrian towns did the same between 1919 and 1921, which makes individual municipal issues easy to overlook as a category but often locally printed with surprising care.
Melk printed its own. That detail matters: locally produced Notgeld tends toward simpler typography and thinner paper stock than commercially contracted issues from Vienna-based printers.