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50 Heller Ossarn
| Issuer | Ortsgemeinde Ossarn |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Salmon-toned notgeld printed in black letterpress, with a decorative border of repeated geometric ornaments framing the entire face. A central vignette presents a line-art view of the local parish church surrounded by trees, flanked symmetrically on both sides by the bold numeral '50' and the denomination legend 'Heller' in Gothic blackletter script. Below the vignette, a two-line liability clause in Fraktur reads that the Gemeinde Ossarn pledges all movable and immovable assets, followed by the place and date 'Ossarn, im Mai 1920' and two manuscript signatures beneath the titles 'Der Vizebürgermeister' and 'Der Bürgermeister'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain salmon-toned reverse, without border ornamentation, set entirely in Fraktur letterpress. The heading repeats the full title 'Gutschein der Ortsgemeinde Ossarn über 50 Heller', followed by a paragraph explaining the issuance of interest-free vouchers totalling 10,000 Kronen to alleviate the small-change shortage, redeemable in legal tender between 16 and 31 December 1920. A warning line states that counterfeiting is punishable by law, and the printer's imprint 'Buchdruckerei Herzogenburg' appears at the foot. |
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| Comments |
Ossarn is a small village in Lower Austria, administratively part of the Herzogenburg municipality. This note belongs to the wave of Austrian Notgeld issued between 1919 and 1921, when chronic small-coin shortages following the collapse of the Habsburg economy forced even the smallest communities to print their own emergency fractional currency. The Buchdruckerei Herzogenburg — a local press in the nearby market town — produced notes for several surrounding parishes during this period, making attribution of identical print characteristics across issues relatively straightforward.
The issuing authority here is the Ortsgemeinde itself, not a bank or savings institution — a reminder of how far down the administrative hierarchy this monetary improvisation reached.