20 Para Emergency Postage Stamp Currency

Serbia's 1915 collapse under the combined Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian offensive forced the government into a complete monetary improvisation. With the National Bank evacuated and conventional printing impossible, postage stamps were formally authorized as fractional currency — a desperate but legally deliberate act, not an improvised field measure.

The 20 Para denomination was among the smallest values pressed into this role. These pieces survive in wildly varying states; the thin, ungummed paper used for the currency printings degrades differently than standard stamp stock, and distinguishing the two requires attention to gum traces and perforation consistency.