50 Francs

The Aargauische Bank was one of Switzerland's cantonal note-issuing institutions operating under the decentralized monetary system that persisted until the Swiss National Bank's founding in 1907. This note was issued during the final years of that plural system, when over thirty Swiss banks still held the right to issue their own paper currency — a situation that created real interoperability headaches and fueled the political push for consolidation.

Joseph Storck was a Vienna-based professor of decorative arts; his involvement here is unusual and suggests the bank commissioned designs with deliberate ornamental ambition. Albert Walch's collaboration on the obverse points to a division of labor between concept and execution that was common in high-end Austrian and German printing circles of the period.