50 Heller Schwödiau

Schwödiau — today Svidník in northeastern Slovakia — issued this Heller notgeld during the acute coin shortage that followed the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monetary system after 1918. Municipal scrip of this type was a purely practical response: small denominations had effectively vanished from circulation, and communities printed their own to keep local commerce moving.

H. Siebert's design credit on a piece from a small Carpathian market town is worth noting — local notgeld was frequently designed by whoever was available, schoolteachers and postal clerks included. The single signature, Josef Schilhuber, almost certainly a municipal official, served as the sole authentication.