20 Heller St. Veit im Mühlkreis

St. Veit im Mühlkreis is a small municipality in Upper Austria, and this 20 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld wave that swept Austrian communes between 1919 and 1921 — a direct consequence of the postwar coin shortage that left ordinary retail transactions nearly impossible. The central government could not supply enough small change, so thousands of municipalities printed their own emergency issues, most valid only within the issuing locality.

Hammerstorfer's signature as signatory places this within the local administrative structure of the period, likely as Bürgermeister or a designated financial officer. Municipal Notgeld of this size and origin was typically redeemed and destroyed within months, which accounts for the relative scarcity of genuinely circulated examples from minor Upper Austrian communes.