50 Heller Neuhaus

This is an Austrian Notgeld issue — emergency municipal scrip produced during the severe coin shortage that followed World War One. Neuhaus im Wienerwald, a small community in Lower Austria southwest of Vienna, was one of hundreds of municipalities that printed their own low-denomination notes between roughly 1919 and 1922 to fill the vacuum left by hoarded or melted coinage. The three signatures — Vice-Mayor Karner, Mayor Mayer, and First Councillor Fürst — reflect the formal authentication practice required to give these local issues at least a veneer of official standing.

That three separate officials signed a 50 Heller note speaks to how seriously even minor communities treated the legal formality, even as the currency itself was essentially worthless beyond the issuing village.