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50 Heller Maissau
| Issuer | Stadtgemeinde Maissau (City Municipality of Maissau) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Currency | Krone (1918-1921) |
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| Obverse description | Notgeld (emergency money) note printed in black on cream paper with a fine wave-pattern underprint across the main field. The central vignette presents a detailed line-engraving of Maissau castle and its surrounding buildings set within an oval laurel wreath, flanked on either side by large hexagonal denominational cartouches bearing the numeral '50' above the word 'Heller'. A bold Fraktur scroll at the foot of the note carries the spelled-out value 'Fünfzig Heller', while the validity date '31. März 1921.' appears in the lower field beneath the central vignette. To the right of the main note field, a coupon stub carries a wreath-encircled '50' numeral at top and the town coat of arms below, with the issuing authority and date of issue in Fraktur lettering. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is divided into two vertical panels on cream paper. The left panel carries the denomination in large Fraktur script arranged vertically — 'Kassenschein / über / 50 / Heller / der / Stadtgemeinde / Maissau / Niederösterreich.' — alongside a ghost underprint of the town arms. The right panel, framed by a ruled micro-line border, contains a four-line German verse by Josef Schmid in Fraktur type, followed by a prose declaration in which the Stadtgemeinde Maissau pledges its assets as guarantee for the notes, and closes with the printed facsimile signatures of the Bürgermeister, Vizebürgermeister and first Gemeinderat. |
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| Comments |
Maissau is a small wine-growing market town in Lower Austria, and its 1920 Heller notes belong to the vast wave of Austrian municipal Notgeld issued in the immediate postwar years when small coin had effectively vanished from circulation. The Austro-Hungarian monetary system had collapsed, the new Republic was drowning in inflation, and towns the size of Maissau were left to plug the gap themselves — hence the three municipal signatures here, mayor, deputy mayor, and a council member, lending the note whatever local institutional weight it could muster.
Three signatories on a 50 Heller note is a detail worth noting: it suggests the municipality took pains to authenticate even its smallest denominations.