50 Heller Sigmundsherberg

Sigmundsherberg is a small rail junction town in Lower Austria, and like hundreds of Austrian municipalities in 1920, it printed its own Notgeld to compensate for a near-total absence of small change in the postwar economy. The imperial coinage had effectively vanished — hoarded, melted, or simply gone — and the new Austrian state was in no position to replace it quickly. Local authorities stepped in with whatever printer was close at hand.

F. Berger of Horn handled a substantial volume of municipal Notgeld for the surrounding Waldviertel region during this period. Both signatories — Bürgermeister Bachmayer and Vizebürgermeister Breit — signed by hand rather than facsimile, which is consistent with the very modest print runs typical of villages this size.