30 Heller Kirchham

Kirchham is a small municipality in Upper Austria, and this 30 Heller note belongs to the vast wave of Notgeld issued by Austrian communes and towns between 1919 and 1922 to address the severe small-change shortage that followed the collapse of the Habsburg economy. The Republican government could not produce low-denomination coinage fast enough, so thousands of local authorities printed their own. Kirchham was among the more modest issuers — no elaborate series, no collector-targeted art editions.

Signed by Josef Ursprunger and Leopold Rauscher, presumably the Bürgermeister and a senior municipal official. Locally printed, which typically means simpler typography and thinner stock than the commercial Notgeld runs produced in Vienna or Graz.