20 Heller Pürbach

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.