20 Kreuzers Komotau

Komotau (now Chomutov, Czech Republic) issued this emergency fractional note during the revolutionary turbulence of 1849 — the tail end of the Bohemian uprisings that had convulsed the Habsburg lands the previous year. Municipal authorities across Bohemia resorted to locally issued Kleingeld substitutes when small-denomination coinage essentially vanished from circulation, hoarded by a population with little confidence in what came next.

Gottlieb Haase Söhne was a well-established Prague printing house with a long record of quality commercial work, which makes their involvement in these provincial emergency pieces somewhat notable. The official stamp was the primary authentication mechanism — without it, the note had no standing.