20 Heller Traisen

Traisen is a small market town in Lower Austria, and this 20 Heller note is a product of the Notgeld wave that swept Austrian municipalities between 1919 and 1921 — a direct consequence of the coin shortage that followed the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system. Local governments were legally permitted to issue small-denomination emergency paper, and hundreds did. Most circulated only within their own district.

Three signatories authenticated each note: the Bürgermeister, Vizebürgermeister, and a Gemeinderat member — a formality that gave the paper at least the appearance of municipal authority. The embossed seal served as the primary anti-counterfeiting measure, modest by any standard but adequate for a note that would rarely travel far from its town of issue.