20 Heller St. Veit im Pongau

Sankt Veit im Pongau issued this 20 Heller note as part of Austria's Notgeld wave — the small-denomination emergency scrip that flooded the country between 1919 and 1921 when coin shortages made everyday commerce nearly impossible. The federal government's inability to maintain adequate coinage circulation after the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system pushed hundreds of municipalities, including this small Salzburg market town, to print their own stopgap money.

The Jaksch reference places this firmly in the documented Salzburg regional series. Survival rates for these small paper pieces are actually quite variable — many were redeemed and pulped, while others were saved by collectors almost immediately, creating an odd distribution where mint-state specimens can be easier to find than genuinely circulated ones.