50 Heller St. Nikola an der Donau

Sankt Nikola an der Donau is a small market town on the Austrian stretch of the Danube, upstream from Grein. This 50 Heller note is a Notgeld issue — emergency municipal scrip produced during the acute coin shortage that gripped Austria in the years immediately following the collapse of the Habsburg empire. The local printer, J. M. Hiebl of Grein, handled a number of similar commissions for nearby communities along the river during this period.

Authentication relied on an official stamp rather than any printed security feature, which was typical of small-run municipal issues where printing costs had to be kept minimal.