Catalog
25 Gulden
| Issuer | Wiener Stadt Banco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1800 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular (hand cut) |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on white paper with no pictorial vignette, typical of early Austrian Banco-Zettel issues. The denomination numeral '25' appears at the top centre beneath the legend 'XXV Gulden', followed by the text 'Das ist Fünf u: Zwanzig Gulden' and the issuer title 'Wiener Stadt Banko-Zettel' in elaborate blackletter script. The lower portion carries multiple manuscript and printed signatures of officials of the Gmr. Stadt Wien Banco Zettels Haupt Kasse, a decorative border frames the note, and a handwritten serial number appears at the bottom. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Wiener Stadt Banco — formally the Banco del Wiener Stadt — was not a bank in any modern sense but a municipal credit institution founded in 1706 to manage Vienna's civic debt. By 1800, its Bancozettel notes had been circulating for decades and were chronically over-issued, a problem that would accelerate dramatically during the Napoleonic Wars. The 1811 Bankalzettel reform would eventually reduce all outstanding Banco notes to one-fifth of face value — a state bankruptcy in all but name.
Watermark security at this period was the primary anti-counterfeiting measure, the engraved printing technology of the era offering limited protection on its own.