50 Korún Provisional Note

When Czechoslovakia dissolved on 1 January 1993, both successor states faced an immediate practical problem: neither had its own currency ready. Slovakia's solution was to overstamp existing Czechoslovak banknotes with adhesive stamps bearing the Národná Banka Slovenska eagle, creating provisional Slovak currency overnight. This 50 Korún is one of those stamped transitional notes — the underlying note was a Czechoslovak issue, printed in Prague by Státní Tiskárna Cenin, now repurposed for a country that had not yet existed when the sheet left the press.

The stamps were applied hastily and the operation was not perfectly controlled. Misaligned, double-struck, and missing stamps all exist, and forgeries of the stamp itself appeared quickly enough that the provisionals were withdrawn within months once proper Slovak-designed notes entered circulation.