50 Heller Aigen

Austrian Notgeld of this type emerged from a genuine crisis: the postwar collapse of small-denomination coinage left rural communities unable to conduct basic transactions. Aigen, a small parish in the Salzburg region, issued its own emergency scrip in 1920 as a local stopgap, with the Bürgermeister and two Gemeinderäte signing as guarantors of redemption — a municipal liability, not a banking instrument.

The "b" suffix in the Jaksc/Pick reference indicates a variant within the series, likely a color or text distinction from the "a" type. Small-commune Notgeld from this period was printed in short runs and often redeemed and destroyed promptly, making survivors genuinely uncommon rather than artificially scarce.