5 Heller Bad Ischl

Bad Ischl's 5 Heller notgeld of 1920 belongs to the enormous wave of Austrian municipal emergency currency issued after the collapse of the Habsburg economy left the new republic chronically short of small change. The three signatures — mayor Voglahuber flanked by his two deputy mayors — reflect the legal requirement in many Austrian municipalities that low-denomination emergency paper carry multiple civic countersignatures to establish authority in the absence of a functioning central monetary system. Bad Ischl's status as a former imperial spa town gave it an unusually robust local administration, which likely facilitated orderly issue and redemption.