Catalog
5 Gulden
| Issuer | Wiener Stadt Banco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1800 |
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| Reference(s) | P#A31 |
| Obverse description | Central text block set within an ornate black-printed cartouche, carrying the full legal tender inscription in period German script. An elaborate decorative border frames the design, with the imperial coat of arms positioned at the lower portion of the note. The denomination numeral 5 appears in the upper field, with the layout executed in a stark letterpress typographic style characteristic of early 19th-century Austrian fiscal paper. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Ormed within the paper substrate, incorporating the decorated Arabic numeral 5 and Roman numeral V, with the year date 1800 at the lower portion. |
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| Comments |
The Wiener Stadt Banco was not a bank in any modern sense — it was a municipal credit institution founded in 1706 primarily to manage Vienna's debt obligations, and by 1800 its paper issues had been circulating long enough to be deeply embedded in everyday Austrian commerce. The French Revolutionary Wars were straining Habsburg finances severely at this point, and the Banco's notes were being issued in quantities that would eventually contribute to the catastrophic inflation culminating in the 1811 Finanzpatent, which wiped out roughly 80% of paper money values.
The watermark was the principal security measure, as was typical for Vienna-produced paper of this period. Counterfeiting was a persistent problem throughout the Napoleonic years.