20 Heller Rauris

Rauris is a small alpine market town in Salzburg province, and this 20 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld wave that swept through Austrian municipalities after the First World War left the new republic's coinage supply in near-total collapse. Local authorities were legally permitted — and practically compelled — to issue their own small-denomination emergency currency to keep commerce moving at the village level.

E. & K. Müller handled a considerable volume of Austrian Notgeld printing during this period, and the designer credit to S. Narholt is worth noting — local series of this kind frequently employed regional illustrators rather than established commercial artists. The single Sommerer signature indicates authorization by a municipal official, almost certainly a Bürgermeister or equivalent.