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50 Heller Gresten
| Issuer | Marktgemeinde Gresten (Market Town of Gresten) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dark violet on cream paper, the obverse is divided into two vertical panels within a decorative border. The left panel contains a vignette of a rural chapel with a steep pointed steeple set among trees, enclosed within a rounded frame flanked by ornamental scrollwork and surmounted by the numeral '50'. The right panel bears the issuer's name 'Marktgemeinde Gresten' in Gothic script at the top, followed by 'Notgeld' within a decorative cartouche, the denomination 'Fünfzig Heller' in large blackletter script, and a liability clause reading 'Die Marktgemeinde Gresten haftet für die Verbindlichkeit dieses Scheines mit ihrem ganzen Vermögen.' Three signature lines for the Bürgermeister, Bürgermeister-Stellvertreter, and Zahlmeister appear at the foot. |
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| Reverse lettering | Marktgemeinde Gresten. 50 Heller Nachahmung wird gesetzlich bestraft. Gültig bis 31. Dezember 1920. |
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| Comments |
Gresten is a small market town in Lower Austria, and like hundreds of comparable municipalities, it issued Notgeld during the acute coin shortage that developed in Austria from 1916 onward. The 50 Heller denomination was among the most commonly needed for everyday transactions once metallic coinage effectively vanished from circulation — copper and nickel had been requisitioned for war production, and the imperial government was slow to provide adequate paper substitutes at the small end of the scale.
Municipal issues like this one had no formal backing beyond local trust. Redemption was theoretically guaranteed by the issuing commune, though in practice many were never presented for exchange.