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| Issuer | Marktgemeinde Werfen (Market Town of Werfen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green guilloche vignette on a salmon-pink crosshatch underprint, with an ornate cartouche frame enclosing the denomination and issuing authority text in Gothic blackletter script. A small decorative vignette of a seated figure appears at the base of the cartouche. The denomination numeral '20' is printed in black at both lower corners. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Marktgemeinde Werfen / Dieses Gutschein über / Zwanzig Heller / wird bis 31. December 1920 von der Marktgemeinde Werfen in gesetzlichem Gelde angelöst. / Gemeinderat / Bürgermeister / 20 / 20 |
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| Comments |
Werfen is a small market town in the Salzach valley, and like hundreds of Austrian municipalities in 1920, it issued its own small-denomination emergency currency — Notgeld — to address the catastrophic coin shortage that followed the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system. The 20 Heller was among the most commonly needed denominations for everyday transactions, which likely explains the unusually high print run of over twelve million pieces for a community of this size.
That figure suggests Werfen's notes circulated well beyond its own district, a common outcome when neighboring towns failed to produce sufficient quantities of their own issues.