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50 Heller Aigen
| Issuer | Gemeinde Aigen (Municipality of Aigen, Upper Styria) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed on a yellow-ochre ground with a decorative border of stylised arrow motifs and flanking palm-leaf vignettes. At centre, a rectangular landscape vignette enclosed within a floral guilloche frame presents a view of a mountain massif — characteristic of the Upper Styrian Alps — with a village in the foreground. The denomination numeral '50' appears in red within a circular cartouche at the top, flanked by scrolling ribbon banners inscribed 'heller', while two corner panels each bear '50 / fünfzig / heller' in bold letterpress. Below the central vignette, the issuing authority text is rendered in red decorative script. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in black on plain cream paper within a dashed rectangular border. The heading 'Gutschein der Gemeinde Aigen / Ober-Steiermark' appears at the top in Gothic blackletter script, with denomination panels '50 Heller' at upper left and right. A four-line Styrian dialect verse occupies the upper body of the note, followed by a formal redemption text in German confirming the municipality's liability per council resolution of 17 July 1920. The note concludes with the printed designation 'Der Bürgermeister:' accompanied by a manuscript signature. |
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| Comments |
Austrian Notgeld of this type was issued during the severe coin shortage that followed the collapse of the Habsburg economy — small municipalities across Austria printed their own emergency pfennig and heller denominations between roughly 1919 and 1921 because the central government simply could not supply enough small change. Aigen, a small parish in the Enns valley of Upper Styria, was one of hundreds of communities that went this route rather than leave local commerce paralyzed.
The Jaksch reference confirms this as a catalogued municipal issue, not a speculative or purely collector-targeted printing — a meaningful distinction, since many late Notgeld series were produced with philatelic buyers in mind and never entered circulation at all.