5 Schillinge

The Oesterreichische Nationalbank was itself only founded in 1923, a direct consequence of the League of Nations-supervised stabilization program that ended Austria's catastrophic post-WWI hyperinflation. This note belongs to the bank's first substantive series — issued before Austria had fully rebuilt public confidence in paper currency, which the preceding years of crown inflation had thoroughly destroyed.

Rudolf Junk was a prolific Viennese graphic artist; Karl Sterrer a figure painter trained at the Vienna Academy. An unusual pairing for banknote work, and it shows in a design sensibility that leans more toward applied arts than the engraved intaglio tradition common to contemporary European issues.