Catalog
20 Kruna
| Issuer | Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Ministry of Finance) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Reference(s) | P#2 |
| Obverse description | Austrian-Hungarian Bank 20 Korona note (Austria P#13, dated Bécs 1913, Január 2.) overstamped for Yugoslav circulation with a black circular handstamp reading 'Ministarstvo Financija' applied over the Austrian shield on the Hungarian (German-text) side. The underlying note carries a portrait vignette of a young woman at right, a large numeral '20' in red at centre, and the text 'HUSZ KORONA' with 'TÖRVÉNYES ERCZPÉNZE' below, alongside two manuscript signatures for the Kormányzó and Főigazgató. |
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| Obverse lettering | АЗ OSZTRAK-MAGYAR BANK E BANKJEGYÉRT BÁRKI KIVAN SÁGARA AZONNAL FIZET BÉCSI ÉS BUDAPESTI FŐINTÉZETEINÉL HUSZ KORONA TÖRVÉNYES ERCZPÉNZE BÉCS 1913 JANUÁR 2. OSZTRAK-MAGYAR BANK KORMÁNYZÓ FŐIGAZGATÓ MINISTARSTVO FINANCIJA |
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| Comments |
This note was created through administrative sleight of hand rather than new printing: the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes overstamped existing Austro-Hungarian 20 Kronen notes to bring them into its own currency system following the dissolution of the Habsburg empire in 1918. The newly formed state had no printing infrastructure of its own and no time to commission fresh issues, so overstamping was the fastest path to a functioning circulating currency.
The overprint validation process was notoriously inconsistent, and forged or improperly stamped examples circulated alongside genuine ones — a problem the authorities acknowledged but never fully resolved before the krone-based series was superseded by the dinar.