50 Heller Neukirchen am Walde

Neukirchen am Walde is a small market commune in Upper Austria, and this 50 Heller notgeld belongs to the enormous wave of locally issued emergency currency that flooded Austria between 1920 and 1921 — a direct consequence of the coin shortage following the collapse of the Habsburg monetary system. The Marktgemeinde printed its own scrip because there was simply nothing else to use for small transactions. Matthias Reitinger's signature identifies the authorizing official, almost certainly the Bürgermeister at the time of issue.