20 Heller Schattleiten u. Schweinsegg

One of thousands of Austrian Notgeld issues printed during the acute coin shortages of 1920–1921, this 20 Heller note was jointly issued by two small rural communes — Schattleiten and Schweinsegg — near Ternberg in Upper Austria. The pairing of two villages on a single emergency issue was not unusual in the region, but it does reflect just how granular the Notgeld phenomenon became: even hamlets with negligible commercial traffic felt compelled to produce their own substitute coinage when small denomination coins vanished from daily trade. Emil Prietzel, the Steyr printer responsible, handled a number of such local commissions from the surrounding area.