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20 Heller Pürbach
| Issuer | Gemeinde Pürbach (Municipality of Pürbach) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld (emergency money) note printed in black on pale grey lined paper, enclosed within a decorative border of repeating foliate ornaments. The denomination numeral '20' appears in large bold type at the left, paired with the spelled-out legend 'Zwanzig Heller' in Gothic blackletter script at upper right. A small guilloche vignette with interlaced scrollwork occupies the lower left, beside a vertical row of dots separating the two halves; validity and redemption texts appear in Gothic script at centre right. Three signatories are named at the foot — J. Maier (2. Gemeinderat), E. Hoffmann (Bürgermeister), and J. Kuben (Vizebürgermeister) — with the print run noted as '3. Auflage' below the border. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Official stamp |
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| Comments |
Pürbach is a small Lower Austrian municipality, and this 20 Heller note is a product of the acute coin shortage that gripped Austria during the First World War. From roughly 1916 onward, hundreds of Austrian municipalities issued their own emergency small-change notes — Notgeld — as hoarding stripped copper and silver coins from circulation entirely. The central authorities tolerated rather than formally sanctioned the practice, leaving local officials like the three signatories here to improvise their own redemption guarantees and authentication.
The official stamp was the primary fraud deterrent, hand-applied at the time of issue. Three signatures for a 20 Heller note speaks to how seriously even tiny communities took the accountability question.