Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Heller Innsbruck
| Issuer | Notgeld-Sammlerbund Innsbruck |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | 31 December 1920 |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The centre of the note is occupied by an oval vignette portraying Josef Speckbacher, the Tyrolean resistance fighter, rendered in a colourful Art Nouveau illustrative style with his name inscribed in small lettering beside the portrait. Large denomination numerals '50' appear in the upper left and upper right corners against a decorative foliate underprint, with 'Heller' lettered beneath each in Fraktur script. The lower portion is divided into two text panels: the left bearing the redemption guarantee text in Fraktur, and the right carrying the issuance place and date alongside three facsimile signatures of the issuing authority's officials. The note is marked '2. Auflage' (second edition) at the lower left margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is centred on a large oval vignette containing a finely detailed street scene of the Herzog-Friedrichstraße in Innsbruck, with figures in the foreground and the characteristic medieval tower visible among the historic townhouses. Edelweiss blossoms ornament the four corners flanking the oval, while the Tyrolean eagle coat of arms appears in a rectangular panel at the lower left and a decorative balcony motif occupies the corresponding panel at the lower right. Large '50' numerals with interlocking 'h' monograms fill the outer corners, and the issuer's name is lettered in bold Fraktur along the lower band above the serial number and printer's imprint. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Notgeld-Sammlerbund Innsbruck was not a municipal authority or bank — it was a collector's organization that issued this piece explicitly for the philatelic and numismatic trade, not to fill a genuine currency gap. By 1920, the acute postwar coin shortage that had justified most Austrian Notgeld had largely subsided; collector-oriented issues like this one were already being criticized in contemporary numismatic circles as cynical series produced purely for sale to hobbyists.
Wagner was a well-established Innsbruck commercial printer. The fact that both issuer and printer were local makes this one of the tidier Tyrolean Notgeld attributions — many regional pieces of this period were printed elsewhere and shipped in.