50 Heller Gross-Pertholz

Groß-Pertholz is a small market town in the Waldviertel region of Lower Austria, and this 50 Heller note belongs to the vast wave of Austrian municipal emergency money — Notgeld — issued when the breakdown of coin circulation during and after the First World War left local economies without small change. Thousands of Austrian communes issued their own scrip between roughly 1916 and 1922, each requiring the signatures of local officials to be valid, here supplied by three named signatories rather than the more common two.

The three-signature arrangement on the Jaksc/Pick JPR0295 series is worth noting — it suggests a degree of administrative caution, or possibly a specific municipal ordinance governing issue authority in Groß-Pertholz at the time.